Background: Internationally, efforts to increase the representation of women in military forces persist despite stagnant gender ratios. While the past decade has seen notable and rapid progress in menstrual health and hygiene promotion, menstrual health research and initiatives have been predominately led by the Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) field (Wilson et al., 2021). In the limited body of research concerning menstruation within organizational settings, menstrual health is predominantly viewed as an individual concern, while systemic inequities remain unaddressed (Sommer et al., 2016; Nash, 2023). The management of menstruation in military environments is framed as essential for maintaining both individual and organizational operational effectiveness (Chua, 2020). Consistent with this lens, menstruation in military contexts has typically considered it a problem solvable through medical treatment and control (Keyser et al., 2020; Grindlay & Grossman, 2013, 2015; Powell-Dunford, 2003). While addressing hygiene and access to menstrual products is crucial, research is needed to understand women’s experiences of menstruation to address the aspects of organisational culture that perpetuate menstrual stigma. The specific aims of this study were to understand how women perceive and manage menstruation within the New Zealand Army, explore how women’s experiences of menstruation are negotiated within and shaped by the military environment, and add to our understanding of women’s menstrual experiences through the use of narrative interviews.

Methods: This qualitative study collected data using narrative interviews with eighteen women currently serving in the New Zealand Army and nine key informants. Data were analysed using reflexive thematic analysis. Narrative research is a broad and varied methodology that puts stories and individual voices at the heart of the research. It leans on the complexity of stories to establish a greater understanding of a phenomenon or lived human experience (Lewis, 2017; Creswell, 2007). A qualitative study design and narrative methodology was chosen in part as it had the potential to challenge androcentrism, which recognizes the tendency to diminish women’s experiences. Through the lens of gendered organisational theory, narrative interviewing was used to explore personal narratives and construct an organisational narrative.

Results: Women’s stories underscored their need to consistently prove their worth as soldiers whilst being highly visible as women. This constant need to justify their place in the military influenced how women managed their period and, underpins the three overarching themes identified from the narrative interviews: First, menstrual suppression was explored by most participants who described the convenience of not having their period in a military environment. Whether supressing their period or not, women’s stories highlighted their desire to fit in within the current military culture while also having control over their own body and decision-making. Second, the stigma of menstruation placed conversations on the subject at the margins of normative military culture. To maintain menstrual concealment and, more specifically, their place within a male-dominated culture, women’s stories described the additional load they carried in their daily tasks to maintain gendered expectations. Third, the framing of menstruation as a barrier to operational readiness creates a dilemma for women seeking reproductive health care. Used to minimising their menstruation, women struggled with self-advocacy to access the menstrual care they wanted from health providers. While exploring the unique element of operational readiness, findings suggest that care is conditional on the setting and career stage women’s bodies are found.

Findings of key informant interviews reinforced the importance of gendered norms on women’s experiences in the military. Key informant interviews highlighted a growing awareness of the positive aspects of menstruation while demonstrating that the lack of institutional emphasis and education on menstrual wellbeing poses a challenge to fully embracing and incorporating this perspective into broader culture change.

Conclusion: Using gendered organisational theory, this research examined menstruation as a vehicle to explore gendered interactions and structures within a military context. Participant stories elucidated how women’s embodied experiences of menstruation were mediated by the organisational norms of the military and, in turn, how menstruation influenced perceptions and attitudes towards women, highlighting their experience as ‘other’. We argue that gender equity cannot be achieved without addressing menstrual injustices embedded in the gendered environment that perpetuates menstrual stigma and regards menstruation as a barrier to operational readiness. This research concludes by highlighting the importance of fostering a cultural shift that normalises menstruation and addresses the deeper cultural norms embedded within military structures for true menstrual justice and gender equity to be achieved.