Menstrual Experience and Structural Injustice. Why Menstruation Should Be a Political Matter

Abstract

In this thesis, I argue that menstruation should be a political matter and that institutions should treat women ​justly​ with regards to their menstrual experience. I justify this claim through the concepts of ​structural injustice a​ nd ​oppression ​developed by Iris Marion Young. I will apply Young’s ​faces of oppression t​ o women’s menstrual experience to show which one of these faces of oppression women are structurally subjected to. I show how structural injustices are embedded in our economic and taxation system and in our everyday life epistemic activities. In the second chapter, indeed, I consider tampon tax and argue against it. I claim that the tampon tax cannot be justified, because an alleged justification would fail to consider menstrual products as necessities and because such taxation does not serve the purpose of distributive justice. In the third chapter, I assess judgements of injustice with the lens of epistemic injustice and argue that women are wronged in their capacity as a knower. Finally, I retrace the reason why institutions and policy makers should tackle the problem of women’s menstrual experience.