Menstruation as taboo in the workplace: Cisgender menâs perceptions of menstruation and menstrual stigma through the lenses of femmephobia and dirty femininity
In: Journal of FemininitiesSearch for other papers by Olivia A. Bettella in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Lilith A. Whiley in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Carolina Maldonado in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Paula E. Wasner in
Current site
Google Scholar
Search for other papers by Sarah. E. Stutterheim in
Current site
Google Scholar
Abstract
Despite being very common, menstruation at work has, to date, received little attention. Guided by theories of femmephobia and dirty femininity, we explored cisgender menâs perceptions of menstruation in the workplace in three European countries: Croatia, Germany, and Italy. Semi-structured interviews with 21 cisgender men workers were thematically analyzed, uncovering pervasive beliefs and attitudes that sustain and reproduce menstrual stigma. Participants mostly characterized menstruation as taboo and irrelevant to the workplace. They felt disinterested and even uncomfortable with the subject matter and believed that it should remain private and hidden, especially at work. They acknowledged that menstruating colleagues were framed as emotionally unstable, weak, and less competent, reinforcing misogynist and femmephobic stereotypes. Our findings extend applications of femmephobia to the devaluation and regulation of menstruating bodies in the workplace, and broaden the concept of dirty femininity to include menstruation. To promote inclusive workspaces, interventions should foster dialogue and build empathy.
Purchase
Buy instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Institutional Login
Log in with Open Athens, Shibboleth, or your institutional credentials
Personal login
Log in with your brill.com account
-
Acker, J. (1990). Hierarchies, Jobs, Bodies: Gender & Society, 4(2), 139â158.
-
Adegoke, A.O. & Johnston, K. (2025). Menstrual discrimination: period pain, productivity and performativity. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-12-2024-0591
-
Atkinson, C., Carmichael, F., & Duberley, J. (2020). The Menopause Taboo at Work: Examining womenâs embodied experiences of menopause in the UK Police Service. Work, Employment and Society, 35(4), 657â676.
-
Bareket, O., Kahalon, R., Shnabel, N., & Glick, P. (2018). The Madonna-Whore Dichotomy: Men who perceive womenâs nurturance and sexuality as mutually exclusive endorse patriarchy and show lower relationship satisfaction. Sex Roles, 79(9), 519â532.
-
Bartholomew, R. (1998). Dancing with myths: the misogynist construction of dancing mania. Feminism & Psychology, 8(2), 173â183.
-
Barnack-Tavlaris, J. L., Hansen, K., Levitt, R. B., & Reno, M. (2019). Taking leave to bleed: Perceptions and attitudes toward menstrual leave policy. Health Care for Women International, 40(12), 1355â1373.
-
Batson, C. D., Chang, J., Orr, R., & Rowland, J. (2002). Empathy, attitudes, and action: Can feeling for a member of a stigmatized group motivate one to help the group? Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 28(12), 1656â1666.
-
Begeny, C. T., Wong, C. E., Kirby, T. A., & Rink, F. (2021). Gender, race, and leadership. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.
-
Bemiller, M. L., & Schneider, R. Z. (2010). Itâs not just a joke. Sociological Spectrum, 30(4), 459â479.
-
Braun, V., Whiley, L. A., Harder, A., OâKeeffe, M., & Stutterheim, S. E. (submitted). Menstrual stigma and academic performance in menstruating university students.
-
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2021). One size fits all? What counts as quality practice in (reflexive) thematic analysis? Qualitative Research in Psychology, 18(3), 328â352.
-
Butler, J. (2002). Gender trouble. Routledge.
-
Choi, D., Lee, D., Lehert, P., Lee, I. S., Kim, S. H., & Dennerstein, L. (2010). The impact of premenstrual symptoms on activities of daily life in Korean women. Journal of Psychosomatic Obstetrics & Gynecology, 31(1), 10â15.
-
Chrisler, J. C. (2011). Leaks, lumps, and lines: Stigma and womenâs bodies. Psychology of women quarterly, 35(2), 202â214.
-
Clarke, V., & Braun, V. (2019). How can a heterosexual man remove his body hair and retain his masculinity? Mapping stories of male body hair depilation. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 16(1), 96â114.
-
Cohen, B. M., & Hartmann, R. (2023). The âfeminisationâ of psychiatric discourse: A Marxist analysis of womenâs roles in neoliberal society. Journal of Sociology, 59(2), 349â364.
-
Collinson, D., & Hearn, J. (1994). Naming men as Men: Implications for work, organization and management. Gender, Work and Organization, 1(1), 2â22.
-
Conte, M. T. (2018). More fats, more femmes: A critical examination of fatphobia and femmephobia on Grindr. Feral Feminisms, 7(4), 25â32.
-
Davies, A. (2023) Gay fat femininities! A call for fat femininities in research on gay socio-sexual applications, Fat Studies, 12:1, 86â99, doi:10.1080/21604851.2021.1948161
-
Davies, A. W. (2024). Love, Simon and failure: Challenging normative discourses and femmephobia in gay youth representations. Sexualities, 27(8), 1386â1400.
-
Davies, A. W., Winkelman, S., Collict, D., & Brennan, D. J. (2023). âI wouldnât say that Iâm overly campyâ: The socio-cultural subjugation of femininity within gay socio-sexual applications. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 32(1), 85â100.
-
Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. Routledge.
-
Fahs, B. (2014). Genital panics: Constructing the vagina in womenâs qualitative narratives about pubic hair, menstrual sex, and vaginal self-image. Body Image, 11(3), 210â218.
-
Fotaki, M. (2013). No woman is like a man (in academia): The masculine symbolic order and the unwanted female body. Organization Studies, 34(9), 1251â1275.
-
Furlano, M. (2024). Disrupting menstrual stigma at work? A thematic analysis of menstrual leave policy announcements across five countries. Culture, Health & Sexuality, 27(8), 1023â1038. https://doi.org/10.1080/13691058.2024.2418406
-
European Institute for Gender Equality (2024). Gender Equality Index | 2023 | Work | European Institute for Gender Equality. Retrieved from https://eige.europa.eu/gender-equality-index/2023/country#:~:text=With%2070.2%20points%20out%20of,do%20to%20reach%20gender%20equality.&text=The%20EUâs%20current%20score%20represents,of%20the%20Index%20in%202013.
-
Hinton, L., & Ryan, S. (2020). Interviews. In C. Pope & N Mays, Qualitative Research in Health Care (pp. 43â55). Wiley-Blackwell.
-
Hofmeister, S., & Bodden, S. (2016). Premenstrual syndrome and premenstrual dysphoric disorder. AAFP.
-
Hoskin, R. A. (2017). Femme theory: Refocusing the intersectional lens. Critical Studies in Gender, Culture & Social Justice, 38(1), 95â109.
-
Hoskin, R. A. (2019). Femmephobia: The role of Anti-Femininity and Gender Policing in lgbtq+ Peopleâs Experiences of Discrimination. Sex Roles, 81(11â12), 686â703.
-
Hoskin, R. A. (2020). âFemininity? Itâs the aesthetic of subordinationâ: examining femmephobia, the gender binary, and experiences of oppression among sexual and gender minorities. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 49(7), 2319â2339.
-
Hoskin, R. A. (2021). Can femme be theory? Exploring the epistemological and methodological possibilities of femme. Journal of Lesbian Studies, 25(1), 1â17.
-
Hoskin, R. A. (2024). Femme frontiers: Tracing and troubling the lineage of forefemmes through to contemporary identities and femme theory. In R. Ryan-Flood & A. Tooth Murphy (eds.), Queering Desire (pp. 97â111). Routledge.
-
Hoskin, R. A., & Blair, K. L. (2022). Critical femininities: a ânewâ approach to gender theory. Psychology and Sexuality, 13(1), 1â8.
-
Hoskin, R. A., & Blair, K. L. (2024). Mind the (Feminine) Gap: Documenting Femmephobic Knowledge Production and the Masculinization of Expertise. Journal of Femininities, 1(aop), 1â29.
-
Hoskin, R. A., Blair, K. L., & Holmberg, D. (2024). Femmephobia is a uniquely powerful predictor of anti-gay behavior. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 53(1), 127â140.
-
Hoskin, R. A., & Taylor, A. (2019). Femme resistance: The fem (me) inine art of failure. Psychology & Sexuality, 10(4), 281â300.
-
Hoskin, R. A., & Serafini, T. (2023). Critically feminizing family science: Using femme theory to generate novel approaches for the study of families and relationships. Journal of Family Theory & Review, 15(2), 292â312.
-
Hoskin, R. A., Serafini, T., & Gillespie, J. G. (2023). Femmephobia versus gender norms: Examining womenâs responses to competing and contradictory gender messages. The Canadian Journal of Human Sexuality, 32(2), 191â207.
-
Hoskin, R. A., & Whiley, L. A. (2023a). Femme-toring: Leveraging critical femininities and femme theory to cultivate alternative approaches to mentoring. Gender, Work & Organization, 30(4), 1317â1333.
-
Hoskin, R. A., & Whiley, L. A. (2023b). Femme praxis: Using femme theory to foster vulnerability within research design and institutions. In S. Bekker, I. Costas Battle, K. Chudzikowski, & B. C. Clift (eds.), Qualitative Researcher Vulnerability (pp. 189â205). Routledge.
-
Johnston-Robledo, I., & Chrisler, J. C. (2020). The menstrual mark: Menstruation as social stigma. In Springer eBooks (pp. 181â199).
-
Jolly, N. (2017). Birth and the bush: Untangling the debate around womenâs pubic hair. Birth, 44(1), 7.
-
King, S. (2020). Premenstrual syndrome (pms) and the myth of the irrational female. The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, 287â302.
-
Laws, S. (1990). Issues of blood. In Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks.
-
Link, B. G., & Phelan, J. (2014). Stigma power. Social Science & Medicine, 103, 24â32.
-
Marathe, S. V., & Raj, J. P. (2020). Perceptions of Menstruation Leaves Between Genders among The Future Workforce. International Management Review, 16(1), 90â97.
-
Maunder, R. D., & White, F. A. (2019). Intergroup contact and mental health stigma: A comparative effectiveness meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology Review, 72, 101749.
-
Mavin, S., & Grandy, G. (2016). A theory of Abject Appearance: Women elite leadersâ intra-gender âmanagementâ of bodies and appearance. Human Relations, 69(5), 1095â1120.
-
Mulya, T. W. (2018). Queering the virgin/whore binary: the Virgin Mary, the whore of Babylon, and sexual violence. In Rape culture, gender violence, and religion: Biblical perspectives (pp. 51â65). Available here: https://repository.ubaya.ac.id/33818/7/Queering%20Virgin_book%20chapter_Teguh%20Wijaya_2018.pdf
-
Mutero, V. (2025). âAs a Womanâ¦â: Policing Black Femininity Through Unsolicited Digital Advice. Journal of Femininities, 1, 1â26.
-
Quint, C. (2019). From embodied shame to reclaiming the stain: Reflections on a career in menstrual activism. The Sociological Review, 67(4), 927â942.
-
Owen, L. J. (2015) Monstrous Freedom: Charting Fat Ambivalence, Fat Studies, 4:1, 1â13, doi: 10.1080/21604851.2014.896186
-
Pasmanns, A., Whiley, L. A., Abidi, L., Stutterheim, S. E. (in press). Lived experiences of menstruation among transgender and gender diverse people: Intersectional stigma and calls for resistance. Psychology of Sexual Orientation and Gender Diversity. https://doi.org/10.1037/sgd0000896
-
Porschitz, E. T., & Siler, E. A. (2017). Miscarriage in the Workplace: An authoethnography. Gender, Work & Organization, 24(6), 565â578.
-
Rizq, R. (2013). States of abjection. Organization Studies, 34(9), 1277â1297.
-
Sang, K., Remnant, J., Calvard, T., & Myhill, K. (2021). Blood work: Managing menstruation, menopause and gynaecological health conditions in the workplace. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(4), 1951.
-
Sayers, J. G., & Jones, D. (2014). Fifty shades of outrage: womenâs collective online action, embodiment and emotions. Labour & Industry a Journal of the Social and Economic Relations of Work, 24(4), 272â285.
-
Schippers, M. (2007). Recovering the feminine other: Masculinity, femininity, and gender hegemony. Theory and Society, 36(1), 85â102.
-
Stern, M., & Strand, S. (2022). Periods, pregnancy, and peeing: leaky feminine bodies in Swedish military marketing. International Political Sociology, 16(1), olab025.
-
Stutterheim, S. E., Van Der Kooij, Y. L., Crutzen, R., Ruiter, R. a. C., Bos, A. E. R., & Kok, G. (2025). Intervention mapping as a guide to developing, implementing, and evaluating stigma reduction interventions. Stigma and Health, 10(1), 3â20.
-
Thornton, L. (2013). âTime of the Monthâ on Twitter: taboo, stereotype and bonding in a No-Holds-Barred public arena. Sex Roles, 68(1â2), 41â54.
-
Tong, A., Sainsbury, P., & Craig, J. (2007). Consolidated criteria for reporting qualitative research (coreq): a 32-item checklist for interviews and focus groups. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 19(6), 349â357.
-
Ussher, J. M., & Perz, J. (2020). Resisting the mantle of the monstrous feminine: Womenâs construction and experience of premenstrual embodiment. In C. Bobel, B. Fahs, E. Arveda Kissling, I. T. Winkler, & K. A. Hasson. Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies, 215â231.
-
Van Lonkhuijzen, R. M., Garcia, F. K., & Wagemakers, A. (2022). The stigma surrounding menstruation: Attitudes and practices regarding menstruation and sexual activity during menstruation. Womenâs Reproductive Health, 10(3), 364â384.
-
Wasner, P. E., Whiley, L. A., Bettella, O. A., Maldonado, C., & Stutterheim, S. E. (submitted). From stigma to support: Exploring the perception of Menstrual Leave Policies in European workplaces. https://osf.io/b8h9f/
-
Whiley, L. A., Stutterheim, S. E., & Grandy, G. (2022). Breastfeeding, âtaintedâ love, and femmephobia: containing the âdirtyâ performances of embodied femininity. Psychology and Sexuality, 13(1), 101â114.
-
Whiley, L. A., Wright, A., Stutterheim, S. E., & Grandy, G. (2023). âA part of being a woman, reallyâ: Menopause at work as âdirtyâ femininity. Gender, Work, and Organization, 30(3), 897â916.
-
Williams J. (2000). Unbending gender: Why Family and Work Conflict and What to Do About It. CiNii Books.
-
Wutich, A., Beresford, M., & Bernard, H. R. (2024). Sample sizes for 10 types of qualitative data analysis: an integrative review, empirical guidance, and next steps. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 23.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 239 | 239 | 69 |
| Full Text Views | 33 | 33 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 70 | 70 | 2 |
Menstruation as taboo in the workplace: Cisgender menâs perceptions of menstruation and menstrual stigma through the lenses of femmephobia and dirty femininity
In: Journal of FemininitiesSearch for other papers by Olivia A. Bettella in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Lilith A. Whiley in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Carolina Maldonado in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Paula E. Wasner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Sarah. E. Stutterheim in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Abstract
Despite being very common, menstruation at work has, to date, received little attention. Guided by theories of femmephobia and dirty femininity, we explored cisgender menâs perceptions of menstruation in the workplace in three European countries: Croatia, Germany, and Italy. Semi-structured interviews with 21 cisgender men workers were thematically analyzed, uncovering pervasive beliefs and attitudes that sustain and reproduce menstrual stigma. Participants mostly characterized menstruation as taboo and irrelevant to the workplace. They felt disinterested and even uncomfortable with the subject matter and believed that it should remain private and hidden, especially at work. They acknowledged that menstruating colleagues were framed as emotionally unstable, weak, and less competent, reinforcing misogynist and femmephobic stereotypes. Our findings extend applications of femmephobia to the devaluation and regulation of menstruating bodies in the workplace, and broaden the concept of dirty femininity to include menstruation. To promote inclusive workspaces, interventions should foster dialogue and build empathy.
| All Time | Past 365 days | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 239 | 239 | 69 |
| Full Text Views | 33 | 33 | 1 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 70 | 70 | 2 |
