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Cleansing in hidden spaces: the bathing needs of perimenopausal women

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conference contribution
posted on 2017-10-12, 08:37 authored by Amita Bhakta, Brian Reed, Julie Fisher
An increasing proportion of the world’s women will pass through the transition to menopause, or perimenopause, as the global population ages. Drawing on the experiences of perimenopausal women in Ghana, this paper highlights bathing as a hidden but important need which has been neglected by the WASH sector. Data gathered in two urban communities through participative methodologies reveal that increased bathing is a vital hygiene practice to manage various perimenopausal symptoms. Bathing experiences of perimenopausal women in Ghana are shaped by symptoms of ageing, and infrastructural, economic, social and environmental factors. Setting the bathing needs of perimenopausal women in the context of socio-cultural perspectives of bathing, this paper calls for an increased examination of bathing in the WASH sector, with an emphasis upon providing user friendly infrastructure through a gender-sensitive approach.

Funding

Loughborough University

History

School

  • Architecture, Building and Civil Engineering

Published in

40th WEDC International Conference WEDC Conference

Citation

BHAKTA, A., REED, B. and FISHER, J., 2017. Cleansing in hidden spaces: the bathing needs of perimenopausal women. IN: Shaw, R.J. (ed). Local action with international cooperation to improve and sustain water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services: Proceedings of the 40th WEDC International Conference, Loughborough, UK, 24-28 July 2017, 6pp.

Publisher

© WEDC, Loughborough University

Version

  • VoR (Version of Record)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-06-16

Publication date

2017

Notes

This is a conference paper.

Other identifier

WEDC_ID:22636

Language

  • en

Location

Loughborough

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    WEDC 40th International Conference

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