Event details

Menstrual stigma affects adolescent girls worldwide, yet its impact on human capital development remains largely unexamined. Webb will present findings from a field experiment in 140 schools in Madagascar to evaluate interventions designed to reduce menstrual stigma and promote hygiene behaviors and will break down the psychosocial mechanisms that led to improvements in girls’ learning outcomes on standardized tests. Webb will also discuss the impacts of identifying “positive deviants” – girls within schools willing to openly challenge menstrual stigma – on norm change. The results demonstrate that addressing gender-specific psychosocial barriers can substantially improve girls’ education outcomes in highly deprived contexts, while highlighting both the promise and limitations of leveraging positive deviance for social norm change.