Abstract

Anja Benshaul-Tolonen*

The link between menstrual health management, or the lack thereof, and adverse schooling outcomes for adolescent girls is well established. Policy solutions generally address access to biomedical information or sanitary materials, and target adolescent and pre-adolescent girls. Surveying of male and female students across four secondary schools in Tanzania, published in Plos One, revealed that another factor must be considered: Period teasing. Teasing is common according to both girls and boys, and affects girls’ presence, participation and concentration in the classroom. For boys, teasing is generally rooted in peer pressure and home-sphere social norms that stigmatize periods. However, the majority of boys do not condone period teasing but report that they would intervene if they witnessed it. Such positive factors ought to be leveraged in future policy research to improve girls’ access education.