Move to end ‘period poverty’ is insulting to women with bigger problems in their lives
I’M A feminist but I don’t think tampons should be free. It’s a policy that looks generous. But, it’s a tokenistic gesture designed to make it look like the Government is doing something for women, without them tackling any real issues.
The Irish Women’s Parliamentary Caucus is bringing a private members’ motion later this month urging free sanitary products to women and girls in direct provision, homeless hubs and schools.
Green Party deputy leader Catherine Martin told the RTÉ ‘Your Politics’ podcast last week that she had worked in a school where she had to buy pads and tampons for the students. She said the proposed legislation would open up a discussion around ‘period poverty’ in Ireland.
In 2017, Scotland was the first country in the world to give free sanitary products to women on low incomes. At least 1,000 women and girls are benefiting from the Aberdeen scheme.
Last September, Dublin city councillors supported a proposal to provide free sanitary products in all Dublin City Council buildings. This will see them available in places like community centres, swimming pools and libraries.
A survey by Plan International Ireland suggests that more than 50pc of Irish girls aged 12-19 have experienced issues around the affordability of sanitary products. While €2 or €3 for a box of tampons may not sound like much, it’s still an extra expense if you’re only bringing home a few hundred euro a month and having to pay rent and feed a family. A woman could end up spending around €10 every month for 30 years (and more than €10 if she has daughters).
Our direct provision centres and homeless hubs should offer free sanitary products. None of these women should have to fork out money they don’t have. But I don’t agree with making these products free in schools or extending free period products to other groups of women.
Private employers could (if they choose to) offer free tampons in the bathroom. They already supply free toilet paper and hand soap and no one suggests employees should have to bring these items for themselves. It would be a simple, relatively inexpensive way to become a woman-friendly workplace. But apart from that, if period pads are a basic human right, shouldn’t a few more hygiene products to be added to the bill too. How about toilet paper? What about men’s razors? Don’t men also have a ‘shaving tax’?
There’s no such thing as ‘period poverty’, it’s just plain old poverty. You see, just like breakfast clubs and free school meals, free sanitary products will only serve to increase state intervention in poorer people’s lives. The Government seems to be increasingly interfering in people’s lives, implying that poorer people can’t handle their money, prepare meals, parent their children, or generally run their own lives without intervention from the Government.
During the recent recession, the unemployed and those on low incomes were badly affected. Over the past decade, the standard of living of the poorest sections of society was particularly squeezed. Wages and unemployment benefit have not kept up with increases in the cost of food and housing.
Things are getting slightly better. The 2017 Survey on Income and Living Conditions published by the Central Statistics Office shows an overall decrease in poverty and deprivation. Those found to be at risk of poverty dropped by half a percentage point, but at 15.7pc the rate still means more than one-and-a-half people in every 10 falls into the category.
Enforced deprivation – a condition defined as those unable to afford two or more specific indicators such as adequate home heating or buying presents for people at least once a year – is now at 18.8pc.
Shouldn’t we think about increasing unemployment benefits to give those living on benefits an adequate amount of money to live on, as well as the dignity of making their own choices about how they should spend that money?
The move to end ‘period poverty’ is at best embarrassing – at worst, it’s insulting to women with bigger problems in their lives. Just 24,080 new dads claimed the paternity payment last year, according to the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection. This is only about a third of those eligible.
I suspect it’s down to the fact that the paternity payment is a very low €245 a week at a costly time in a family’s life, and that many private sector workplaces are unable to function without that employee. But rather than ask fathers why, the Government has upped the leave from two weeks to four this year. I suspect that even fewer fathers will opt to take four weeks off when they have a baby. That’s a win for the Government though – they looked good making the announcement but in reality, they are doing nothing for young families as they adapt to life with a baby.
We have crazily high childcare costs and the Government still hasn’t considered giving tax breaks to working mothers. Most surveys indicate that Ireland has one of the highest costs as a proportion of household income across the OECD. Women are being shut out of the workplace by the high cost of childcare in Ireland, according to a 2018 report by the Economic and Social Research Institute and Pobal.
Tampons are sadly a sideshow. When it comes to the battles facing women, we have bigger fights to win this International Women’s Day.
We should increase benefits and give people the dignity of making own choices on how they spend that money