Humanitarian Femtech
Reproductive Governance and Digital Infrastructures of Care
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 24229185 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Marika Jeziorek (0009-0008-4209-0557, School of International Policy and Governance, Balsillie School of International Affairs, Wilfrid Laurier University , 67 Erb St. W , Waterloo, ON N2L 6C2), Natasha Tusikov (0000-0001-6875-0295, York University) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Publication date | 2026-10-14 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Politics International Studies in Gender State & Society (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1072-4745 • E-ISSN: 1468-2893 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/sp/jxag063 |
| OpenAlex | W7221790519 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 27 |
Period-tracking applications (apps) are increasingly used to manage reproductive health, particularly in contexts in which access to healthcare or reproductive support is limited. While existing research on femtech has focused largely on commercialization and privacy, less attention has been paid to nonprofit, activist, and humanitarian reproductive technologies positioned as alternatives to mainstream commercial platforms. This article introduces the concept of humanitarian femtech to examine how reproductive technologies mobilize claims to care, privacy, and empowerment while remaining shaped by unequal systems of digital governance. Drawing on a qualitative analysis of four period-tracking apps, Oky, Drip, Euki, and HerPride, the article examines how these platforms construct legitimacy, govern reproductive knowledge, and manage intimate data. The findings show that even technologies framed as ethical or humanitarian alternatives remain embedded within broader relations of power, infrastructural dependency, and reproductive governance.
digital governance · feminist activism · health care access · Legitimacy · period tracking apps · power relations · Privacy · reproductive governance · Reproductive health · Reproductive technology · Ethics and Social Impacts of AI · Mobile Health and mHealth Applications · Reproductive Health and Contraception
Casualties of Care
Data Feminism
The Googlization of Health Research
The resilience of the ruins
Managing Legitimacy
Bleeding data
Digital Humanitarianism and Migrant Precarity
Exploring Data Justice
Help
The new patriarchal digitality? Understanding gendered power dynamics through a systematic review of femtech apps in China
Do no harm
Education as a Field of Contention
Governance by Gaslight
Behind Marx’s Hidden Abode
Reproductive Justice for Adolescent Migrant Girls in the Post-ICPD Era
Postfeminist Healthism
What is data justice? The case for connecting digital rights and freedoms globally
Reproductive governance in Latin America
| Highly cited | No |
|---|