From increasing accessibility to female hygiene products to promoting its affordability, the pursuit of achieving menstrual equality in the 21st century is critical. Frankly, attaining menstrual equality will dismantle the impacts of capitalism on female bodies. The crusade towards achieving such equality—whereby its crux, period poverty per se, is abolished—requires outlining a clear definition of menstrual equality. As defined by Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, author of the award-winning book Periods Gone Public, and the American Civil Liberties Union, menstrual equality is the movement towards “laws and policies that ensure menstrual products are safe and affordable and available for those who need them.”¹ These laws and policies, apart from solely being safe, must promote equity in an environmentally friendly manner. Arguably, menstrual inequity stems from the lack of address to the issue of period poverty. It is period poverty, or “the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, handwashing facilities, and, or, waste management,” that creates a classist schism between women, transgender, and nonbinary individuals that menstruate too; as such, to mitigate the impacts of menstrual inequality, addressing period poverty is of utmost importance². Bluntly, ignoring the existence of menstrual inequality perpetuates the ostracization of underprivileged menstruators in society. Menstrual equality is not “just another public health crisis,” but it is a challenge to the guarantee of basic human rights.  

With regards to the role of the economy, it is capitalism and consumerism that enables an entire industry to disgustingly profit off the female reproductive system. According to recent statistics, it was found that the female hygiene market is worth an appalling $51 billion USD; needless to reiterate, these billions of dollars are generated on the backs of billions of women. In fact, in certain nations, a tax on such hygiene products exists. The most common inquiry regarding menstrual inequality questions why female sanitation products are taxed when Viagra is not. Canadian Menstruators, an organization dedicated to the campaign of increasing tax fairness, founded that, in 2014, the Canadian government approximately generated $36,398,387 in tax revenue from female sanitation products³. Costs for female sanitation products are solely incurred by women, transgender, and nonbinary individuals that menstruate; such costs epitomize the existence of gender-based discrimination in capitalist systems. For the victims of period poverty and menstrual inequity, other indirect consequences arise. Apart from burdening women with higher annual costs, women more likely to miss school (falling 145 education days behind men), become subjects of mental health illnesses and acquire urinary and reproductive infections: this form of inequity chains several other consequences⁴.

Menstrual equality, although disguised as a daunting goal, is far from unachievable—many countries have enacted a variety of successful menstrual equality initiatives. In ground-breaking legislation, Scotland became the first country to legally warrant access to free pads and tampons for all women of the country; other countries in the European Union seek to follow suit. Furthermore, by abolishing all taxes on hygiene products, Kenya and Uganda have made large strides towards achieving menstrual equity⁵. In Zimbabwe, local manufactures of sanitation products are subsidized by the government to lower the costs of the product. The crusade for menstrual equality must escalate as, for too long now, women have dealt with the impacts of gender-based discrimination. When an entire economic system is geared towards profiting off one’s body, how could governments entirely overlook menstrual inequity’s dreadful impacts? Action is needed, and action is needed now—period. 

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1. https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/121119-sj-periodequitytoolkit.pdf

2. https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/period-poverty-everything-you-need-to-know/

3. http://www.canadianmenstruators.ca

4. IBID

5. American Civil Liberties Union, Period Equity Tool Kit. Retrieved from https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/field_document/121119-sj-periodequitytoolkit.pdf

#NoTaxOnTampons. (n.d.). Retrieved January 14, 2021, from http://www.canadianmenstruators.ca/

Sanchez, E., & Rodriguez, L. (2019, February 05). Period Poverty: Everything You Need to Know. Retrieved January 14, 2021, from https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/period-poverty-everything-you-need-to-know/

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As we are based in Toronto Ontario, here are some local resources that are tackling the issue of menstrual inequality.

Tampon Tuesday Toronto
Instagram: @tampontuesdaytoronto
Fundraiser link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/tampon-tuesday-toronto?utm_source=customer&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=p_cf+share-flow-1

The Period Purse
Website: https://www.theperiodpurse.com
Instagram: @theperiodpurse