Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, 722 W. 168th Street, Room 537, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Columbia University, Mailman School of Public Health, Department of Sociomedical Sciences, 722 W. 168th Street, Room 537, New York, NY 10032, USA.
Health Place. 2020 Nov;66:102431. doi: 10.1016/j.healthplace.2020.102431. Epub 2020 Sep 25.
A growing literature attests to menstrual management difficulties of girls, women and other people who menstruate. Largely ignored are the menstruation-management needs of people experiencing homelessness. We explored these realities in New York City through in-depth interviews with individuals living on the street and in shelters (n = 22), key informant interviews with staff at government agencies, shelters and service provider organizations (n = 15), and field audits of public toilets. This paper explores both pragmatic difficulties presented by inadequate access to toilets, bathing spaces, and laundering services, and pervasive menstrual stigma. Amplifying the difficulties was near-constant pressure "to pass," as someone who was not homeless in order to enable increased access to toilets, and as someone who was not menstruating, in order to engage in the activities of daily living. Our findings highlight the need for improved quality and accessibility of bathrooms for sheltered and street-dwelling homeless, and expedited access to bathing and laundering. Such actions are essential given the steady increase in homelessness in NYC and - under the long shadow of COVID - especially timely.
越来越多的文献证明，女孩、女性和其他经期女性在经期管理方面存在困难。而无家可归者的经期管理需求在很大程度上被忽视了。我们通过对 22 名流浪街头和收容所的个人进行深入访谈、对政府机构、收容所和服务提供商组织的 15 名工作人员进行关键知情者访谈，以及对公共厕所进行实地审计，在纽约市探索了这些现实。本文探讨了缺乏使用厕所、洗浴空间和洗衣服务所带来的实际困难，以及普遍存在的月经污名化问题。由于需要不断“伪装”成没有无家可归的人，以便更多地使用厕所，以及需要“伪装”成没有月经的人，以便进行日常生活活动，这增加了困难。我们的研究结果强调了需要改善收容所和街头无家可归者的浴室质量和可及性，并加快提供洗浴和洗衣服务。鉴于纽约市无家可归者人数稳步增加，以及在 COVID 的长期阴影下，这些行动至关重要。
