Sharra Vostral
BOOKS
Edited
Collection
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​Scotland and Free Period Products
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The Politics and History of Menstruation: Contextualizing the Scottish Campaign to End Period Poverty (2022) In 2021, Scotland became the first country to make universal access to free period products a legal right. This volume tracks the roots of the current developments through the history of politics, activism, medicine, public health, the arts and education around menstruation in Scotland and transnationally. It is the first collection to analyse and contextualise Scottish menstrual policy. Using archives, interviews, and case studies from other countries and historical periods, our collection poses the question: Why Scotland? Why menstrual rights? Why now?
Book
Toxic Shock
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Toxic Shock: A Social History (NYU Press, 2018) presents a significant case study regarding consumer safety and product liability by focusing specifically on the emergence of tampon-related toxic shock syndrome (TSS). The book argues that the identification of TSS with tampons was a paradigm shift in the way that illness manifests because the supposedly inert tampon technology interacted with a common bacterium to cause sickness in otherwise healthy women.
Edited Volume
Feminist Technology

Feminist Technology (University of Illinois Press, 2010) with Linda L. Layne and Kate Boyer, examines whether or not technologies can embody feminist politics, and what it would mean to keep feminist tenets at the forefront of product development. The essays center upon the gendered aspects of technology, encouraging thoughtful gender-conscientious design practices that consider the many variables of women’s specific wants, needs, and desires.
Book
Under Wraps
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Under Wraps: A History of Menstrual Hygiene Technology (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008) examines the cultural environment of the United States in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, shedding light on how attitudes about women’s health, women’s citizenship, and technological innovation provided conditions favorable to the development of new absorptive menstrual technologies.