From the time we’re old enough to get our periods, girls can be made to feel ashamed of them. Everyone who sat in a classroom through those strange, secretive years will remember the absolute horror and dread of being caught short or having to ask a teacher for menstrual products. We learn not only to come prepared but to be silent about what’s going on too. It’s second nature for us to conceal the very fact that we have periods at all – hiding tampons and pads on the way to the bathroom, stuffed into pencil cases, bras, sleeves.
If it was difficult for those of us fortunate enough to always have these products to hand, it’s shocking to consider the girls among us who are forced by poverty to go without them entirely. Several years ago the concept of period poverty began to rise in public consciousness in the UK. The Ken Loach film I, Daniel Blake, a harrowing account of the realities of poverty in modern Britain, sent awareness of this particular struggle soaring. After its release, food bank managers around England reported that a scene in which a young woman named Katie is forced to shoplift pads sent toiletry donations skyrocketing.
Of course, the problem isn’t confined to menstruation; when an individual or a family is living in poverty, it can mean they are forced to choose between eating enough or keeping the lights on and buying all sorts of hygiene essentials. A report by In Kind Direct – an organisation that receives donations from consumer goods companies and distributes them to charities – lists toothpaste, nappies, tampons, razors, deodorant and shampoo as items that had to be foregone by people living in poverty. It is vital that all of these essentials make their way to donation banks. But perhaps one reason that period poverty has especially caught public attention in the past two years is the particular problem of teenage girls, already at economic and social disadvantage, missing out on their education needlessly.
Amika George, the teenage campaigner who started the #FreePeriods campaign, became engaged with the issue when she read an article about schoolgirls in Leeds who had been truant on the days of their periods. Concerned teachers had contacted Freedom4Girls, a charity established to provide sanitary products to Kenyan girls and women. Shocked that in modern Britain there were girls forced to choose between missing school and using unsafe alternatives such as socks, toilet paper and rags, George set to work.
“I started a petition to call on the government to provide free menstrual products to girls from low-income families, and decided to spread the word and talk unashamedly, not just about period poverty but about menstruation!” she said in an interview with Vogue last year. More shocking to George, and many others, than the problem itself was the fact that nothing was being done about it by the government. Indeed, the fact that sanitary products are taxed as a luxury product means their prices are kept even higher than necessary, blocking more girls from accessing them.
As it stands, Britain still has the so-called tampon tax – with VAT charged at the reduced rate of 5% – despite government commitments to eliminating it by April of this year. But the amazing and inspiring campaigners who have dedicated themselves to this issue have not gone anywhere, and in recent months there have been several new initiatives to join them.
This year, on World Menstrual Hygiene Day, London mayor Sadiq Khan pledged to support the fight against period poverty and announced a partnership with The Red Box Project. According to research carried out by Khan’s team, 17% of London women aged 16-24 have at times been unable to afford appropriate menstrual products. This unacceptable situation is being addressed by community business donations to local schools – a crucial step, bearing in mind these figures don’t take into account the younger teenagers affected. Red boxes with sanitary products are being made available for anyone who needs them, with a second element to the mayor’s campaign working to ensure that women in police custody always have access to the necessary products.
At the same time, girlguiding became much more menstruation-positive, with the introduction of a period poverty badge. Guides will be encouraged to discuss this as a social issue, support fundraising for donations, and explore how they feel personally about periods. An activity-led programme of education includes items such as role play of a scenario in which you’ve had a period leak while not at home. Doireann Larkin, the development manager of Tender, a charity that uses drama and the arts to help young people understand healthy relationships, fully supports the initiative: “We need to provide every opportunity for girls to feel confident and secure in school. By failing to address period poverty, we’re denying some girls the chance to focus and participate fully in class and increasing the disadvantage they might already be facing.”
Guides will be able to get badges that are decorated with pictures of tampons, pads and menstrual cups, a fact that seems especially encouraging given how previous generations have been taught to hide such images. It’s a strange fact that, until recently, advertising for menstruation products would rarely show the actual product, using isolated fabric samples instead.
The Homeless Period Project (HPP) addresses those already at their most vulnerable. While we may understand how desperate a homeless woman’s situation is, we rarely consider the logistical nightmare of menstruating without shelter and access to products. Local chapters of HPP set up their own fundraisers to donate to local shelters.
These frontline activists and organisations are crucial. But so too is dismantling the taboo that exists behind all the secrecy and shame. We have to move on from the medieval idea that periods are dirty or not to be spoken of. That’s why young campaigners such as Grace F Victory are so important – she recently collaborated with the Always #EndPeriodPoverty campaign, which has seen the brand donate more than 5m pads directly to schools, a figure that’s estimated to rise to more than 10m donations by the end of the year. After her Instagram post of herself with a menstrual leak lost her hundreds of followers, she spoke out against them.
Embarrassment is bad enough in and of itself, but when an inevitable bit of our biology causes us to miss out on daily life, there’s even more need to overcome it. We simply can’t accept that vulnerable young women are being blocked from their education.
This is why ending period poverty needs to include taboo busting at its core. We can’t offer help to people too ashamed to ask for it.
