Putting Menstrual Health on the Map
OpenStreetMap (OSM), the free and open map database, has a tag to indicate whether period products are available in public restrooms. However, as of January 2024, only 10 of these tags were added to the map. Today, the tag has been used about 1,100 times, but that is still far too few. The tags are also clustered around Europe, and 88% are tagged as “no” to product availability.
OSM is not just used by the mapping community. It has applications across research, humanitarian organisations (such as the UN and the World Bank), and governments globally. OSM has the power to transform lives, and mapping menstrual products could provide invaluable information for menstruators everywhere.
Join Women+ in Geospatial for an interactive and inspiring Menstrual Hygiene Day event. We will discuss the importance of access to menstrual health, what constitutes a menstrual-friendly restroom, and work together to develop a list of actions to address this mapping inadequacy.
Our speakers are:
Chidera James Edeh is the Co-Founder/Executive Director of Period Slay Initiative in Nigeria.
Angela Nguyễn, DrPH, MPH, is a postdoc at the Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University.
This event is moderated by Lindsey Higgins, Women+ in Geospatial External Communications co-Lead, and is open to the public.