A Generous Monthly Allowance
Colleges, high schools and middle schools throughout the U.S. are finally embracing the tampon
WHEN STUDENTS at Brown University headed to their first class or hit the gym for their first workout earlier this month, they found something new in many campus bathrooms: free tampons and pads. Brown’s student body president, Viet Nguyen, who pushed the initiative, will be hand-delivering menstrual products to all nonresidential bathrooms with the help of 20 students. “There’s been a lot of conversation about why pads and tampons are a necessity, not a luxury, but not a lot of action. We wanted to take it into our own hands,” says Nguyen. “Low-income students struggle with having the necessary funding for food, let alone tampons.”
Brown is one of the first higher-education institutions to implement such a widespread program. By putting menstrual products in women’s, men’s and gender-inclusive bathrooms, Nguyen’s campaign highlights an often ignored fact: Not all people who menstruate are women. “We wanted to set a tone of trans-inclusivity and not forget that they’re an important part of the population.”
Students at Brown aren’t the only ones going back to school this month with unprecedented access to menstrual products. As of this fall, New York City public schools will provide free tampons and pads in all school buildings with sixth through 12th graders. The move is part of the city’s landmark legislation, passed in July, ensuring free menstrual products in public schools, shelters and correctional facilities. (In July, New York also became the 11th state to eliminate taxes on menstrual products.) “Unlike toilet paper, which is provided for free in school restrooms, students are typically on their own to access menstrual supplies,” says Jennifer Weiss-wolf, a leading writer and advocate for menstrual equity. “Yet in order to be fully engaged in the classroom, these are as much of a necessity as pencils and paper. This is especially true for younger teens, who are more likely to be caught off guard by the arrival of their period and without budgets of their own to buy emergency tampons or pads.”
Advocates hope New York City’s law will set a standard around the country. In the meantime, everyday people are making a difference. Last year, Jenn Bajec, a mother of two in Dublin City, Ohio, convinced her local elementary and middle schools to put free tampons and pads in school bathrooms. It all started when her sixth-grade daughter struggled to manage her period because she had only a few minutes between classes, menstrual products were kept far away at the nurse’s office, and there weren’t restrooms on every floor. “My daughter loved school, but when she got her period, she was so overwhelmed with it, she didn’t want to go to school anymore,” Bajec says.
Earlier this year, Inside Higher Ed reported
that students at the University of Arizona, Columbia University, Emory College in Atlanta, Reed College in Portland, Oregon, the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, UCLA and Grinnell College in Iowa, among others, have all advocated for free menstrual products on campus. As Courtney Couillard wrote in the Columbia Spectator, “I can easily find a free condom on Barnard and Columbia’s campuses, but why can’t I find a free tampon in the bathrooms in Hamilton or Milbank? Why does the administration care about my sexual protective rights, but not how I handle my monthly menstrual cycle?”
Discussing periods was once taboo, but over the past year menstruation has become a talking point for everyone from Olympians to politicians to Youtube stars. Last year, musician Kiran Gandhi ran the London Marathon while free-bleeding and artist Rupi Kaur inadvertently launched a backlash against Instagram when the app “accidentally” removed her period-themed photos, twice. Hashtag campaigns raised awareness about people in need (#Thehomeless period and #Freethetampons) while some criticized Donald Trump and his Republican vice presidential nominee, mike pence, for their lame-brained comments about women’ s health (#Periods are not an insult and #Periodsforpence).
There were so many pop culture moments that NPR called 2015 “the year of the period” and Cosmopolitan dubbed it “the year the period went public.” This year, however, has been the year of actual progress. In January, Barack Obama likely became the first president to comment on menstruation when Youtube star Ingrid Nilsen asked him why tampons and pads are taxed in 40 states. His response: “I suspect it’s because men were making the laws when those taxes were passed.” More recently, Chinese swimmer Fu Yuanhui made headlines for talking about her period at the Olympics. After finishing fourth in the women’s 4x100-meter medley relay, she was doubled over and holding her stomach. When a reporter asked why, she replied, “Actually, my period started last night, so I’m feeling pretty weak and really tired. But this isn’t an excuse. At the end of the day, I just didn’t swim very well.” Whoopi Goldberg launched a medical marijuana company with an entire line of products aimed at easing menstrual cramps.
In August, Cora organic tampons and Lunapads reusable menstrual pads landed in select Target stores and Target.com, making it easier to access more diverse and potentially safer period products. Cora, a subscription-based organic cotton tampon company, hit shelves alongside Seventh Generation and Honest Company. Cora tampons come with a Bpa-free applicator and, for every monthly supply sold, the company gives period products to girls in India. Lunapads Performa pads are the first washable, reusable cloth menstrual pad to be carried in Target, according to Madeleine Shaw, co-founder of Lunapads. They’re made of natural cotton and highly absorbent, leakproof fabrics, and they can hold three times the amount of fluid as that of similar disposables. Each pad lasts about five years and replaces around 120 disposable products.
Last year, U.S. consumers spent $3.1 billion on pads, tampons and liners, according to Euromonitor. Procter & Gamble, Energizer Holdings and Kimberly-clark control 85 percent of the tampon market, but since the Food and Drug Administration does not require companies to disclose the ingredients in their pads and tampons, many people are turning to niche brands because they offer transparency. After centuries of signaling the start of adulthood, periods are finally coming of age.
“LOW-INCOME STUDENTS STRUGGLE WITH HAVING THE NECESSARY FUNDING FOR FOOD, LET ALONE TAMPONS.”