 Cultural taboos and misinformation about menstrual health management in rural BangladeshSilvia Castro and Kristina Czura World Development, 2025, vol. 188, issue C Abstract: Millions of women worldwide face challenges in managing menstruation, which negatively affects their health, education, labor force participation and productivity. Cultural taboos and social norms are believed to be at the core of this issue, perpetuating stigma and harmful health behaviors, and interfering with attempts to improve knowledge. Our study explores how deep-rooted cultural norms relate to, and potentially hinder, effective menstrual hygiene practices in rural Bangladesh. With an educational intervention, we disseminate crucial knowledge on menstrual hygiene practices. While the intervention succeeded in reshaping certain misconceptions and easing restrictions on hygienic drying of menstrual absorbents, it was less effective in changing deep-seated harmful practices related to their washing and maintenance. The findings suggest that information alone is insufficient to change entrenched norms, highlighting the need for more comprehensive strategies to improve menstrual health management. Keywords: Social norms; Menstrual health management; Women’s health; Adverse health behavior; Behavior change (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:188:y:2025:i:c:s0305750x24003425 DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2024.106871 Access Statistics for this article World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes More articles in World Development from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.