A blind spot in girls’ education: menarche and its webs of exclusion in Ghana

Despite notable progress in girls’ education over the last decade, gender-based differences continue to shape educational outcomes. One of the most overlooked of these differences is the process of maturation itself, including menstruation. This paper presents the findings of a study that assessed the impact of sanitary care on the school attendance of post-pubertal girls, as well as the implications of menarche for their well-being. The study found that the provision of adequate sanitary care represents a relatively unrecognized but potentially fruitful tool in strategies that aim to improve girls’ educational outcomes, one that warrants policy consideration among development planners.