Menstruation, Menstrual Cups and School Attendance: Evidence from a Randomized Trial in Uganda

Abstract: Several organizations claim menstruation and lack of proper sanitary protection to be one reason for lower school attendance in developing countries. These claims are stated to cause lower progression rates to secondary school among girls, and further increase the gender gap in enrollment to higher education. This study aims to examine the effects of menstruation on school attendance and to evaluate further what impact provision of menstrual cups have on girls´ schooling. The results are presented from a randomized trial that assigned menstrual cups to adolescent girls in rural Uganda. Girls are randomly assigned a menstrual cup for use during their menstruation to measure the effect on school attendance. The findings suggest that the effects are minimal and do not support that menstruation or lack of proper sanitary protection has a significant impact on education as has been claimed. The effect of menstruation on school attendance indicate that girls miss on average 0.009 days of school over 34 schooldays. Girls being allocated a menstrual cup are 0.028 days more likely to attend school during period days. I control for age, girls´ years of education, parents´ years of education and parents´ monthly work for pay. The method used in the analysis is the difference-in-difference estimator. Quantitative and qualitative data were conducted with 58 participants.