Menstrual Justice: A Human Rights Vision
March 6 from 4 - 5 pm in the Campus Center
There is growing acknowledgment that menstruation discrimination is sex discrimination, and even intersectional discrimination, involving discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity, or sex and disability. There is an understanding that menstrual injustices violate human rights. Nonetheless, discrimination, stigma, and human rights violations continue. Why?
Professor Margaret Johnson from the University of Baltimore School of Law coined the terms menstrual injustice and menstrual justice in 2018 as she attempted to catalogue the ways in which discrimination against individuals who menstruate manifests, to understand the root of the discrimination, and to construct pathways towards addressing the injustices. In this talk, Professor Johnson will discuss the collaborative work she has done to address menstrual justice with grassroots advocates and researchers in the United States and Australia, as well as with an international coalition.
About the Speaker
Professor Margaret Johnson is a Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law. Her current research examines the reproductive justice, including menstruation law and policy. She asks questions about how women and other pregnancy capable individuals are subject to structural and intersectional forms of oppression. She explored comparative menstruation law and policy as a 2023 Fulbright Scholar at UTS in Sydney, Australia.
Her research examines the regulation of reproduction and menstruation by state and private actors. In addition, she addresses the use of narrative theory, critical reflection, and normative theory in lawyering for clients. Johnson’s articles have been published in the U.C. Davis Law Review, Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, the B.Y.U. Law Review, and Cardozo Law Review, among others. She is co-author of the book Lawyers, Clients & Narrative: A Framework for Law Students and Practitioners (2d ed. 2023). Her research has been relied upon and cited by courts, media, and other scholars.
Publications
Interested in learning more before the event? Check out some publications on the topic authored/co-authored by Margaret Johnson:
- Menstrual Justice: A Human Rights Vision for Australia (2023)
- Menstrual Justice (UC Davis Law Review, 2019)
- Title IX and “Menstruation or Related Conditions” (Michigan Journal of Gender & Law, 2023)
- Menstrual Dignity and the Bar Exam (UC Davis Law Review, 2021)
- Asking the Menstruation Question to Achieve Menstrual Justice (Columbia Journal of Gender & Law, 2021)
- Title IX and Menstruation (Harvard Journal of Law & Gender, 2020)
