Home> Archive> 2024> Volume 14, Number 3, 2024
IJSSH 2024 Vol.14(3): 104-109
doi: 10.18178/ijssh.2024.14.3.1201

Emergency Feminine-Hygiene Accessible Stations: Action Research to Advance Gender Equality in a Chinese University

Nan Zhu

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), Guangzhou, Guangdong, China
Email: nzhu810@connect.hkust-gz.edu.cn
Manuscript received January 11, 2024; revised February 6, 2024; accepted February 22, 2024; published May 29, 2024.
Abstract—Many individuals presume that gender equality will naturally improve in tandem with technological advancements and economic progress. However, despite significant economic disparities between the United States and China over the past three decades, the Gender Inequality Index (GII) for both countries (Fig. 3) has exhibited a striking similarity. This data suggests that policy intervention is imperative to advance gender equality despite the economic situation. This project started as the author was surprised by the lack of sanitary napkins despite the state-of-the-art facilities at Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou). Although the economic development in China has enabled advanced technological innovations on campus such as unmanned autonomous driving vehicles, she could not convince the logistics department to provide sanitary napkins even for purchase. What puzzles her more is the widespread availability of personal electronic charging stations and free family planning products in public areas in Guangzhou. This contrast underscores the potential to use technology and social innovation to improve Chinese women’s living conditions.  This report records a social enterprise project of Emergency Feminine-Hygiene Accessible Stations and demonstrates a preliminary implementation result of increased awareness level about menstruation and 3 male allies to advance gender equality. The study not only outlines the current project progress in a Chinese university but also compares it to international norms. In conclusion, the report synthesizes these findings and lists multiple policy recommendations to diminish menstrual poverty, and menstrual stigma, as well as enhance gender equality in public areas using this Chinese school as an example.

Keywords—gender equality, period poverty, period stigma, sanitary napkin, China

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Cite: Nan Zhu, "Emergency Feminine-Hygiene Accessible Stations: Action Research to Advance Gender Equality in a Chinese University," International Journal of Social Science and Humanity vol. 14, no. 3, pp. 104-109, 2024.

Copyright © 2024 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (CC BY 4.0).

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