Written by Emily Cranston
December 1, 2020
Should period products be free for all those who need them? This question has been a topic of global debate for policy makers for quite some time. However, as of Tuesday, November 24, 2020, Scotland has succeeded in being the first country to approve universal access to period products in public institutions. In 2018, Scotland was also the first country to take vital steps toward ending period poverty by making menstrual products available in schools, colleges, and universities.
In Canada, menstrual products are not universally available even though period poverty is an issue that a significant proportion of young women in Canada are affected by. In 2018, a study by Plan International Canada of 2000 women aged 25 or younger found that along with the varying emotional and social effects of menstruation, one third of Canadian women under 25 have had difficulties affording period products. Lacking these products during one’s period can lead to many harmful health conditions such as toxic shock syndrome and a higher risk of lower reproductive tract infections. There is also the risk of increased social isolation and shame due to this lack of access which worsens the situation. Furthermore, it has been estimated that women in Canada spend as much as $6000 on menstrual hygiene products in their lifetime, and subsequently, women in low-income or social assistance situations are disproportionately affected by the high cost of these period products.
FemCare, a non-profit company based in Hamilton, Ontario, is one example of some of the work being done to eliminate period poverty in Canada. Halima Al-Hatimy is the founder of FemCare, a company that started as a community project to provide menstrual hygiene products to homeless people in 2015. This company now promotes menstrual policy changes in all levels of government and is quite impressive in becoming the first non-profit initiative to convince a government organization to provide menstrual products to those in who are most in need first.
In 2019, Rachel Ettinger, founder of Here for Her, and Matt Sereda, equity and inclusivity education learning co-ordinator for the Thames Valley District School Board, championed the proposal for free menstrual products in all public buildings in London, Ontario after succeeding in getting free period products for all high school bathrooms. They were successful in this endeavor, as London has since passed a motion to provide free products in all city-owned public buildings – the first in all of Canada.
Additionally, Western University finished a project compiling information on the costs and benefits relating to supplying free menstrual products in bathrooms in their University Community Centre. This entailed that the University’s Student Council provide 12,000 products in washrooms and poll students on their opinions on the free access. The result of this project was a business report sent to the university to hopefully create a more permanent change to the system.
Scotland’s recent commitment to provide universal access to menstrual products for those in need will certainly create positive social, emotional, and financial change for those individuals requiring them. However, we can only hope that Monica Lennon, the lawmaker who drafted the recently passed bill in Scotland, was right when she said, “Scotland will not be the last country to make period poverty history,” and that this new law will be “a signal to the world that free universal access to period products can be achieved”.
Sources:
Ted Talk from Nancy Kramer, the founder of Free the Tampon Federation found on their website: https://www.freethetampons.org/about.html
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