Socio-Cultural Context of Menstruation: Lived Experiences of First-Generation Punjabi Immigrant Women from India Living in the Greater Toronto Area

Abstract

Menstruation may appear as nothing more than a natural, physiological process experienced by menstruators every month, but its meaning is derived from a particular cultural, historical and social context. This research project focused on uncovering and exploring the complex cultural and racial dynamics of menstruation by positioning this biological process of menstruation in a broader socio-cultural context. This study critiques the medicalization of menstruation that ignores the cultural and racial narrative of menstruation, which directly and indirectly impacts the agency of menstruators to openly discuss and access menstrual health care. The research utilizes the theoretical framework of intersectionality and postcolonial feminism to analyze how mutually constitutive categories of difference, such as gender, culture, and race, shape individual lives, health, social practices, and cultural ideologies around menstruation. The research consisted of semi-structured interviews with ten first-generation Punjabi immigrant women menstruators aged 21 to 30, who migrated from Punjab, India, to Toronto in the last decade. The findings of this study are analyzed using reflective thematic analysis grounded in feminist standpoint theory to center the lived experiences of menstruators. The thesis reframes menstruation as a structural and policy issue rather than a mere individual concern, embedded in broader power structures. Findings suggest that migration reshapes access to menstrual period healthcare systems and infrastructure, informed by gendered and racialized norms of productivity and endurance across borders.