Period poverty is the lack of access to basic sanitary needs, such as sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, handwashing facilities, and/or waste management, for women who can’t afford or don’t have access to these things. Period poverty affects people all over the world, including women in the United States who don’t have the money to afford sanitary products — and let not forget the “pink tax,” don’t worry I’ll get to that in a little bit.
A shortage of sanitary resources prevents women from going to school and working every day. In the US, several states “have passed laws mandating schools provide period products to students, deeming them as essential as toilet paper,” according to the Washington Post. However, this only helps to an extent. For one thing, there are still countless states where young girls do not have access to these products and the cultural shame surrounding menstruation leads to embarrassment for these girls. On another hand, “Federal prisons only made menstrual products free in 2018,” according to the Huffington Post. Only as of three years ago did inmates gain the right to basic sanitary needs — the rightmost students in the US are still fighting for.
In addition to the lack of easy access to sanitary products, women in the US must pay the “pink tax.” The “pink tax” is gender-based pricing where “an upcharge on products traditionally intended for women which have only cosmetic differences from comparable products traditionally intended for men,” according to Healthline. This is a clear disparity between men’s and women’s products. Why are women’s products more expensive? And in addition to the “pink tax” that shows the inequality between men’s and women’s products, there is also the “tampon tax,” which falls under the umbrella of the “pink tax.”
The “tampon tax” refers to the sales tax applied to feminine hygiene items such as pads, liners, tampons, and cups — currently, there are 36 states that still apply sales tax to these necessary menstrual items. Yet, things such as viagra have no sales tax on them. And to get even more absurd, Healthline looked into what things are tax-exempt in various states and found that these things “range from marshmallows in Florida to cooking wine in California. Maine is snowmobiles, and it’s barbecue sunflower seeds in Indiana and gun club memberships in Wisconsin.” If all of these nonsense things can be exempt from a tax, necessary sanitary products certainly should be.
While the issues surrounding menstrual hygiene are easily noticeable in the US, this problem is not unique to the country, period poverty affects women in the developed and developing world, and women living in poverty are especially vulnerable.
Too many people have to make a choice every day whether to purchase food and other necessary supplies or sanitary products. And when people make the decision to purchase food, they are forced to use different objects such as old clothing and rags in place of these much-needed sanitary products. For example, “in India, only 12% of menstruators have access to sanitary products, leaving the rest to use unsafe materials like rags and sawdust as an alternative,” according to Global Citizen. This is clearly unsafe and can lead to even bigger problems down the lines such as infections.
Both period poverty and the negative stigma surrounding menstruation need to end. Period poverty prevents women all around the world from being able to obtain much-needed sanitary products every month, and even those who can afford them are left paying ridiculous taxes on them. Those who can’t afford them, however, face problems such as health issues related to using unsanitary items in place of menstrual products.
In addition, the stigma surrounding menstruation prevents young girls and women from living up to their full potential, especially those living in poverty. For example, if period poverty keeps a young girl from attending school once a week every month, she will slowly fall behind, and sadly this does happen to many girls living in poverty who can’t afford much-needed sanitary products.
Period poverty is a real and prevalent issue. Everyone needs to become educated on the issue and help make periods normal. No girl should have to feel embarrassed about something that is natural and no girl should have to miss school or work because they lack the necessary sanitary products.