Breaking the silence around blood: managing menstruation during remote Antarctic fieldwork

Abstract

Drawing on qualitative interviews with female expeditioners in the Australian Antarctic Program, this article examines the additional labour involved in managing menstruation during remote Antarctic fieldwork. Unlike expeditioners working on a research station, fieldworkers rarely have consistent access to private toileting facilities or dedicated times/spaces to deal with their bodily excretions. However, being able to easily access toileting facilities can significantly impact how people who menstruate experience fieldwork. This is an overlooked but crucial corporeal challenge of working in Antarctica. Findings reveal that in male-dominated spaces, expeditioners must go to great lengths to make their menstruation invisible. A primary way that women do this is through menstrual suppression technologies. When these are not available or not preferred, women negotiate trying to keep their menstruation and gynaecological health issues hidden but often do so in field settings where there is little infrastructure or support. I argue that the lack of infrastructure to support menstrual health in the field is a form of sexism that maintains women’s lower status in polar field environments. To conclude, I provide practical guidance for National Antarctic Programs to support people who menstruate.

Keywords:

• Extreme environment
• gender
• menstrual etiquette
• polar
• stigma

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the participants who generously shared their experiences and to the Australian Antarctic Division for supporting this work.

Disclosure statement

Meredith Nash served as Senior Advisor - Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity at the Australian Antarctic Division at the time this study was undertaken.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Meredith Nash

Meredith Nash is an Associate Professor in Sociology at the University of Tasmania and former Senior Advisor – Inclusion, Diversity and Equity at the Australian Antarctic Division. She is an internationally recognised expert on leadership for women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Medicine (STEMM) fields and building inclusive workplaces. Meredith has led numerous high impact projects focused on preventing sexual harassment in remote scientific fieldwork, designing intersectional leadership programs for women in STEMM, evaluating institutional gender equity programs, and encouraging male allyship.