Lottie Rhodes
Lottie's PhD project title is 'Menstrual Justice: Listening to and Understanding Women’s Experiences of ‘Period Poverty’ and Menstrual Inequality in Newcastle Upon Tyne'. Read more about Lottie's research.
About Lottie
I'm a PhD student funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. My work is interdisciplinary across Human Geography, Sociology and Menstruation research.
I'm also a Research Assistant at Newcastle University Business School. Here I research how mothers engage with hashtag related phenomenon (#fitmum) on social media.
Project description
My research explores the ‘period poverty’ and menstrual inequality of women living in Newcastle. Period poverty is understood as the inability to afford menstrual products. However, financial constraints aren't the only barrier to accessing period products for the women I've spoken to.
I call for wider recognition that period poverty is due to more than a lack of money, including:
- traumatic childbirth
- abusive relationships
- sexual assault
Academics and activists also call for period poverty to be understood as:
- a lack of education
- a need to live free from menstrual stigma
- along with menstruation, not solely experienced by ciswomen
I work with a feminist philosophy and conducted fieldwork during the coronavirus pandemic. The women participating shared their experiences of living in and managing period poverty. Adult experiences of period poverty in the UK is a severely under-researched area. I seek to pave a way for menstruation research in Human Geography and to provide much-needed research and insight in this area.
Publications
- Stenning, A; Chan, L; Rhodes, L; Smith, K. (2021) ‘The Everyday’ in Social Geographies: An Introduction, The Newcastle Social Geographies Collective (eds), pp.116-122
- Blazek, M; Smith, K; Rhodes, L; Chan, L. (2021) ‘Emotion’ in Social Geographies: An Introduction, The Newcastle Social Geographies Collective (eds), pp.123-130
Visual publication about my PhD methods
Presentations
- Menstruation Research Network 2022 – 'The English government’s 2020 menstrual product provision policy in educational institutions: who benefits?'
- BSA Annual Conference 2022 – 'Social Class as an Analytical Tool to Explore Experiences of Period Poverty'
- (Re)Defining Fieldwork 2022 – 'The impact of interviews: a reflection on research interview impact on a ‘new’ researcher’s non-professional life'
- ESRC Festival of Social Sciences 2021 – 'Supporting Women who Experience Period Poverty and Menstrual Inequality in East End and West End Newcastle'
- NINE DTP Summer Conference 2021 – 'I was in a shitty relationship... he wouldn’t let me have period products' Reconceptualising ‘Period Poverty’ to Better Understand Menstrual Inequality’
- Sociology Undergraduate Talk 2021 – 'Negotiating and Managing Periods and ‘Period Poverty’ in Everyday Life: Methods for Sociological Research'
- Institute of Social Science Gender Agenda 2020 – 'Beginning to Think About Gender and Menstruation'
Teaching
Academic qualifications, memberships and achievements
Education:
- BA Geography, Newcastle University
- MA Human Geography Research, Newcastle University
Memberships:
- British Sociological Association
- Royal Geographical Association
Achievements:
Co-organised hybrid Leverhulme-funded conference titled ‘Menstruation in the Media’ (October 2021), in collaboration with Dr Maria Tomlinson (University of Sheffield)
Contact and further information
You can find out more about me and my research via my Twitter profile and LinkedIn profile