MENSTRUAL LEAVE APPS AND WORKPLACE EQUITY AMONG KARACHI CORPORATE WOMEN

Abstract

Digital health tools have become major stakeholders in the last few years in defining policies at the workplace such as those handling menstrual health. The paper investigates the way menstrual leave apps shape the representations and actions of equal treatment in workplaces by women employed in Karachi corporate industry. Although there is the worldwide initiative to establish gender-inclusive policies, menstrual equity is understudied in urban professional communities in South Asia (Hennegan et al., 2021). The research will be based on the feminist technology studies and organizational justice theory, and will combine the mixed-methods research, surveying 2,000 women and interviewing 40 participants that will include financial, tech, and FMCG sectors. The quantitative evidence shows that app-mediated menstrual leave policies are positively correlated with perceived fair workplace, lower presenteeism, and better job satisfaction in and across women (Mahajan & Jha, 2020). In the male-dominated firms, conflict underlies the stories of tech inclusivity and stigma as shown in qualitative interviews. The authors come to the conclusion that despite the singular potential of the menstrual leave apps as a solution to fair workplaces, these types of applications may or may not be effective, depending on the attitudes of the management and organization cultures. Based on these findings, context-sensitive HR frameworks that combine digital tools and the overarching agendas of gender equity will be necessary (Rani & Nath, 2023).