Women’s Equality Starts with Ending Period Poverty
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Happy Women’s Equality Day to our fellow ladies! Today is the day we celebrate the women before us for their successes and the strides they made to break the glass ceiling for everyone to follow. Today we also celebrate the successes of those amongst us and our youth for the successes they will achieve in the future. This generation is filled with compassion and just enough ambition to make further changes and improvements for women in our society.
Although this day is filled with hope and it’s an opportunity to reflect on how far we have come, it’s also a day to acknowledge the current obstacle women face globally – period poverty. There are some countries that have made sanitary products free across all of the schools in the country such as England and Scotland. However, the United States and many other countries have made little to no strides and have made empty promises like the bill several states passed a year ago. The bill made it mandatory for schools, correctional facilities, and homeless shelters to provide menstrual hygiene products, however, the mandate remains unfunded and it forces schools and facilities to deal with the full cost of services and products.
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Approximately 12 million women between the ages of 12 to 52 across the U.S. live below the poverty line. Most of them don’t have access to sanitary products and neither tampons nor pads are provided through government aid like Medicaid or the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Low-income women have to choose between food and sanitary products and limited access to sanitary products can lead to poor menstrual health. They resort to using rags, toilet paper, tissues, toilet paper and so on to substitute the proper period products they cannot afford. If by chance they do get their hands on a box of the proper sanitary products, a study commissioned by THINX & PERIOD showed that 61% of students across the U.S. have worn a tampon or pad for more than 4 hours because they did not have enough access to period products. This puts women at risk of getting an infection or contracting toxic shock syndrome.
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Period poverty affects all aspects of women’s lives more than just their health. It negatively impacts their education. Across the US, 25% of students have missed class because of the lack of access to period products, according to the study commissioned by THINX & PERIOD. American women face the same problems at work with 34% of them going home to get what they need if they get their period by surprise. If women were provided with free sanitary products at work, they would be more productive at work because they wouldn’t have to worry.
Providing free menstrual products at work, schools and other facilities seems like a no brainer solution for the unfortunate obstacle low-income women in our country have to face. However, the U.S. is far behind making this a reality since the country has failed to remove the taxes placed on pads, tampons, menstrual cups and other comparable products. Several countries like India, Kenya, Canada and Ireland understand that sanitary products are basic necessities, so they have removed taxes on menstrual products.
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There is a lot of work to be done when it comes to women’s equality in its truest form, but a great start would be ending period poverty. It would benefit women globally and positively impact their health, education, career and, believe it or not, their self-esteem.
To help end the Tampon Tax, sign this petition. To donate to low-income women in need of period products, click here.
Sources:
· Paper Magazine. (2019). The State of Period Poverty in the United States.
https://www.papermag.com/period-poverty-tampon-tax-united-states-2631311601.html
· AWWA. End Period Poverty.
https://awwathelabel.com/pages/end-period-poverty
· THINX & PERIOD. (2019). State of the Period.
· Alisa Eresina. (2019). 3 Ways to Create A Period-Friendly Workplace.
https://www.alisaeresina.com/3-ways-how-to-create-a-period-friendly-workplace/