Boys Will Be Boys? A Study of the Menstrual Health Literacy amongst Adolescent Boys and the Human Right to Education in the Township of Langa, South Africa

Abstract: The study was conducted throughout November 2021 in the township of Langa, in the Western Province of Cape Town, South Africa. The purpose of the study is to explore the menstrual health literacy of adolescent boys through collecting data capturing knowledge, experiences and attitudes. The ambition is to locate the findings within the Human Rights Framework, and explore how they may have implications for the ability of girls to realise their right to education. 32 learners between the ages of 13 and 17 years participated in focus group interviews and 8 informant interviews were held. The findings illustrate that adolescent boys have inadequate knowledge about menstrual health, and how their menstrual literacy is shaped by observations from girls in school, and puzzling together informal pieces of knowledge and  experiences. The potential implications this illiteracy may have for girls are practical and social, where the lack of infrastructures responsive to distinctive needs of female learners deprives the right to education. At the same time, the educational context in South Africa is characterised by inequality and learners from the low-income settings are behind the national curricula, making it unreasonable to expect menstrual literacy being prioritised, given its stigmatised connotations. It concludes highlighting how menstrual literacy matters for altering the patterns of unequal development, and for recognising distinctive realities lived by adolescent boys and girls throughout the world.