Bloody frontier politics: Menstrual equity, military inclusion, and the Canadian workplace
Published in Diversity and Inclusion Research, 2025
Recommended citation: Facca, Danica, and Arun Jacob. (2025). Bloody frontier politics: Menstrual equity, military inclusion, and the Canadian workplace. Diversity & Inclusion Research, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/dvr2.70029 https://doi.org/10.1002/dvr2.70029
In light of these complexities, we argue that menstrual equity policy and related DEI discourse within militarized institutions, as federally regulated workplaces, function as mechanisms of soft coercion which discipline assigned female at birth (AFAB) soldiers into alignment with masculine ideals of the soldier-worker under the guise of “inclusion.” We examine how menstrual concealment and suppression technologies are made available to AFAB soldiers as military technological solutions for occupational health that simultaneously expand participation and reinforce cultural beliefs that menstruation is a logistical problem to be minimized and/or erased in service of operational readiness.
Recommended citation: Facca, Danica, and Arun Jacob. (2025). Bloody frontier politics: Menstrual equity, military inclusion, and the Canadian workplace. Diversity & Inclusion Research, 2(3). https://doi.org/10.1002/dvr2.70029