Hayley Newman-Petryshen

Hayley is passionate about creating intersectional and community-centric approaches to community building and engagement and has been working in the menstrual equity space in Canada in various ways for more than five years. After securing the provision of free menstrual products at her undergraduate university, she moved to Montréal in order to complete an MA in Political Science and International Development, writing her thesis on menstrual equity activism in Canada and in the Global South. In Montréal, she runs a grassroots menstrual equity non-profit called Monthly Dignity that works to address the causes and consequences of period poverty through access, education, and advocacy. Hayley also has a passion for research, working with Canada’s Research Network on Women, Peace, and Security to study the intersections of gender, climate change, and security and additionally working with a McGill professor to study activism and policies surrounding pregnancy loss in Canada and elsewhere, leveraging a reproductive justice approach. Hayley is excited to help unite community menstrual equity activists across Canada through her work with FPC, supporting localized work whilst pushing for systemic change.