Global Action on Period Poverty: Fix this bloody mess
Achieving dignity one pad at a time
Welcome back Chaise Lounge readers and an especially warm welcome to our newest readers. This week we finish the series on period poverty with a look at how this topic has gone global over the past decade. If you missed the first article in the series, you can read it here.
As Americans are beginning to see a glimmer of normalcy as more of us are vaccinated, let us keep our thoughts with those in India and other countries where the pandemic is having a massive recurrence. And now, onto the latest news.
Global News
German gymnast Sarah Voss made headlines last week as she performed her routine in a full-body leotard at the European Artistic Gymnastics Championship. Voss explained, “We women all want to feel good in our skin. In the sport of gymnastics, it gets harder and harder as you grow out of your child's body. As a little girl, I didn't see the tight gym outfits as such a big deal. But when puberty began, when my period came, I began feeling increasingly uncomfortable." Kudos to Voss for starting a trend and being open to mentioning her period as part of her explanation. Two of her teammates joined her in wearing full-body leotards.
Scotland has elections coming up on May 6 and the Labour Party has published a “women’s manifesto” putting women at the heart of the pandemic recovery. The manifesto includes closing gender pays gaps, supporting women in launching new businesses, retraining employment programs with childcare provided, and the rapid development of clinics to address the backlog of cancer screenings. We will keep an eye on this election!
National News
President Biden is rolling back the “gag” rule that former President Trump imposed on women’s health clinics receiving Title X funds. Biden is returning the funding rules to where they were prior to the gag rule. This is crucial money for family planning dollars that go toward women with few resources. Unfortunately, the new rules have to go through the rulemaking process and access to those funds will not be available until later this year.
Procter & Gamble announced that they will raise prices on menstrual products, incontinence, and baby product (diapers) beginning in September. The company says that global shortages of materials for these products are responsible for the price increases. While those who have periods already pay the Pink Tax, it will only increase now.
LinkedIn is adding prepopulated fields on its resume building platform to include stay-at-home parent, maternity and paternity leave, and other ways to indicate that a person has taken some time away from traditional work. They are also planning to add pronoun identification. The ability to fill in holes on resumes is especially important post-pandemic as many who were unemployed re-enter the job market.
Abortion Law Counter
Global Action on Period Poverty: Fix this bloody mess
Crimson tide, Aunt Flo, lady business, that time of the month, Carrie - the list goes on. The number of euphemisms used to avoid saying the word “period” in public is staggering. The stigma around periods is not only dangerous, it is preventing us from making progress in addressing period poverty. Stigma can take many forms including simple discomfort in discussing the topic to excluding people who are menstruating from society. Stigma stifles intelligent discussion of hygiene and dignity. Stigma allows practices like taxing period products as luxuries or not providing period products in public bathrooms to stand without question. There really is no argument for not making period products publicly available as we do toilet paper and paper towels. But discomfort with the discussion prevents progress both in legislatures and with the education of the general public.
Ever so slowly, discussion of menstruation is becoming more acceptable, and nowhere is that more obvious than in the advertising space. From the brash and funny ad for Flex to the visceral Always “What the Gush?” moment to the artistic Thinx period underwear subway ads, we see a more open discussion of period products. By making period advertising that grabs people’s attention and actually explains what is happening, these companies are helping to normalize talking about periods. And that is, of course, a good thing. But does it lead to more access to products?
A Global Issue
Period poverty is an international phenomenon drawing attention in legislatures globally over the past decade. The term refers to the fact that many people are not able to regularly afford period products like pads and tampons. As a result, they miss many days of school or work and suffer huge hits to their dignity. Over the past decade, Namibia, Kenya, Canada, Australia, and India passed laws dropping taxes on period products. New Zealand is providing free period products in schools. And in Scotland, they are providing period products free of charge to anyone needing them.
In India, an organization called Boondh, addresses this issue with their #StopPeriodPenalty campaign. Like their American counterparts, they use both legal and socio-cultural arguments. They are working toward changing attitudes toward menstruation by creating a repository of stories of menstrual exclusion, analyzing the stories through a legal lens to identify patterns of exclusion, raising awareness with government stakeholders, and developing a toolkit of rights so that people know their legal rights when presented with exclusionary practices. Boondh also has a donation program that provides menstrual cups and pads to those who cannot afford them.
Period equity advocates are attempting a two-pronged approach by bringing period discussions into public discourse and presenting menstrual equity legislation. In her book, Periods Gone Public: Taking a Stand for Menstrual Equity, author Jennifer Weiss-Wolf highlights the ways that discussions of menstruation have increased since 2015. Women, especially celebrities, are more open to discussing their periods in a matter-of-fact manner. From social media campaigns like #PeriodsWithoutShame to free-bleeding marathon runner Kiran Gandhi, and long-form articles by women like Megan Markle, and PSAs from Daveed Diggs, supporters are bringing the topic to the media. But is that making a difference in legislatures?
Progress in the U.S.
Here in the United States, period products have historically been taxed as “luxury items” rather than necessities which are not taxed. While it is hard to understand how that happened in the first place, advocacy attorneys at Period Equity are working to move states to repeal those taxes. So far, twenty states have done so with legislation introduced across the country this year in the remaining states. With 20% of teens reporting that they cannot afford period products and miss school as a result, there is no time to lose.
Stigma Affects Legislative Moves
In talking with advocates who are pushing legislation in states around the country, some report that just getting people to talk about periods is difficult. According to Alisa Clements, West Virginia Director of Public Affairs for Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, “When I first started lobbying on this issue, there was a lot of discomfort on both sides. Our contract lobbyist was very uncomfortable talking to male legislators about periods, although he had a daughter. The women legislators did not want to have to speak about their periods on the floor.” So if period stigma is so bad that we cannot even have discussions about the topic without creating discomfort, we understand that moving legislation will be an uphill battle. Here, in my home state of North Carolina, a bill was introduced last week to repeal the tax.
It’s about more than taxes, it’s access
The repeal of the luxury tax is only one of the moves needed to tackle period poverty. If you are an American who cannot afford period products, you have to find access to a diaper bank or a food bank to obtain them, and that is only if they provide them. Our government safety net programs like Medicaid and food stamps do not allow period products to be purchased with those funds. Advocates are working toward full access to free period products in public schools, homeless shelters, prisons, and government buildings.
Representative Grace Meng (D-NY) introduced a federal menstrual equity omnibus bill each session since 2017 and will reintroduce it this session. It is called the Menstrual Equity for All Act (ME4ALL). The bill calls for:
Allowing Medicaid to include menstrual product purchases
Allocating emergency shelter funding to cover menstrual products for people who are displaced or homeless
Requiring the Departement of Homeland Security to provide menstrual products
Changing federal education law to include pad and tampon availability free of charge in school budgets
Drawing on labor regulations to mandate free menstrual products in workplace restrooms
Additionally, ME4ALL requires all state prisons and local jails, in addition to federal prisons, to provide free menstrual products to incarcerated people. If they do not provide period products in all correction units, they would not receive their federal justice funding.
Menstrual equity boils down to a simple idea. People who menstruate deserve the dignity of access to period products no matter the circumstance or location. Let’s make it happen by becoming advocates ourselves. Contact your state and Congressional representatives today and let them know that you stand for menstrual equity.
A slightly different version of this article was published on the Women AdvaNCe blog.