MENSTRUAL EQUITY ON COLLEGE CAMPUSES

Allesandra Plourde

Doodles by Noël Sedona James

Period products are a necessity to all who menstruate but sometimes they feel like a luxury because of the economic burden they can pose. Students across the nation are working towards gaining access to free menstrual products on college campuses. Everyone deserves the care they need, especially in their period. Equitable access to these products should be a priority not only on college campuses but globally. The language we use, the cost, the way in which we educate, and perceived periods needs to change. To start to dismantle the stigma of menstruation we have to know why aren’t these products free to begin with?

The reality of it is cost. Universities have to pay for menstrual products just like individual students do. At the heart of this concept for free menstrual products is the term “menstrual equity.” Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, an attorney, Vice president of the Brennan Center for Justice, and author, explains the phrase best. Menstrual equity is equal access to hygiene and menstrual products for all womxn, and access to reproductive education for all.

In Weiss-Wolf’s phenomenal book, Periods Gone Public: Taking A Stand For Menstrual Equity she says,

“In order to have a fully equitable and participatory society, we must have laws and policies that ensure menstrual products are safe and affordable and available for those who need them. The ability to access these items affects a person’s freedom to work and study, to be healthy, and to participate in daily life with basic dignity. And if access is compromised, whether by poverty or stigma or lack of education and resources, it is in all of our best interests to ensure those needs are met.”

To break down the true cost of a period, here’s an example: First, womxn normally have their periods from the age of 13 to 50 those numbers may vary depending on the person (plus or minus a few months if they decide to have kids), which on average is a span of 37 years with a period. So, every month for 37 years a womxn has her period that’s a total of 444 times. For those 444 periods a womxn will use about a box of tampons a period and a box of tampons costs around $7. This means that a womxn will spend around $3,108 on menstrual products ALONE in her lifetime. $3,108!!! That’s $84 extra a year for a period.

This cost doesn’t even begin to expose the underlying inequalities that womxn pay for every day, like the pink tax on “femine” products. It doesn’t account for the disproportionate amount of womxn who are in poverty and can’t afford to pay for tampons and pads. It doesn’t account for the gender binary that is imposed by society surrounding menstruation. There needs to be a change in the way we speak about menstruation; it has to be inclusive among all people, womxn or otherwise; because not all who menstruate are womxn. But there are places on college campuses in D.C., like at American University, where these stigmas are being broken and menstrual equity is being pursued.

The Health Promotion and Advocacy Center (HPAC) at American University provides all students with contraceptives for safe sex practices, sexual health programming, wellness resources and occasionally menstrual products. The center receives condoms for free from the D.C. Department of Health and so they are able to give them out for free. Tampons and other menstrual products, however, have to be bought by the center to give to students for free.

“Menstrual products are not a material we can just get for free whenever we want, and they can be pricey,” said Pritma “Mickey” Irizarry, the Director of HPC, in an interview. “We know because students are also struggling to purchase them.”

Irizarry said she will buy products to keep in case students need them but the center does not have the budget to sustain having them all the time. “I can’t ever guarantee that we are going to have them in the office at any given point in time, unlike with condoms,” said Irizzary.

“I’ve been at AU since 2016 and every year that I’ve been here there has been at least one initiative around getting the university to provide free menstrual products,” said Irizzarry. Students seeking to house the initiative normally approach HPAC or the Student Health Center.

Back in 2017 Her Campus American launched a petition on change.org for “free tampons and sanitary napkins for American University students,” obtaining 250 signatures according to the website. This initiative was helped in part by the Office of Campus Life and American University’s Student Government (AUSG), but there hasn’t been any seen follow through, at least from my research. AUSG’s current Vice President, Schanelle Saldanha, said that she has not recently seen legislation pertaining to menstrual equity on campus, “To be honest with you, not a lot of students come forth at least to me about this,” Saldanha said in an interview. “Maybe it’s also because we aren’t on campus this year that’s it’s not at the top of our minds.”

In relation to legislation that should be passed by AUSG to get free period products, “It shouldn’t be something that’s only offered in the women’s restroom... not all people who menstruate are women and vice versa,” Saldanha said. “I do think it’s [menstrual equity] something that should be brought up more frequently and given more attention to it is kind of a shame that it hasn’t in the past.”

Other universities in the D.C. area like Catholic University of America already have initiatives for readily available menstrual products. For example, H*yas for Choice is an unrecognized and unfunded reproductive justice organization on Georgetown’s campus. They have three different ongoing campaigns, but menstrual equity is one of them.

“We are demanding that Georgetown provide free pads and tampons in all the womxn’s restrooms, the gender neutral restrooms, and at least one men’s restroom per building that is designated with a sticker so that it’s trans inclusive and anyone that needs period products can find them,” said Elianna Schiffrik, the President of H*yas for Choice.

Georgetown University has dispensers for menstrual products, but the locations of the dispensers were inconsistent, they were frequently unstocked and they didn’t have any products in men’s or gender neutral bathrooms.

H*yas for Choice does not personally provide menstrual products to students like it does condoms or emergency contraception, but the Period Empowerment Project at Georgetown does. “They’ve helped us with this campaign a lot,” Schiffrik said. “There are a lot of partnerships with other organizations on campus when it comes to getting these big asks filled by admin. It takes pressure from all sides.”

Recently, the H*yas for Choice has made progress by meeting with the head of facilities at Georgetown. “They have been taking the time to make sure that they’re going to be stocking the baskets or dispenser more frequently,” Schiffrik said. “They also said right now, 85% of the buildings have a dispenser in them, which is an improvement upon what it was.” The department also said they are committed to putting stickers up to indicate which bathrooms have products, “specifically so that the men’s bathrooms that have products stand out and people know where those are.”

At Catholic University of America there is a similar initiative to provide free menstrual products on campus. They have a Menstrual Equity Task Force that was created over a year and a half ago after legislation from the student government was passed, demanding that the university have free menstrual products in every female bathroom.

Chloe Van Syckel is the Vice President of Catholic University College Democrats and the Director of the Menstrual Equity Task Force for the student government. “We were funded for a one-month trial to put free menstrual products in every female bathroom on campus,” said Van Syckel in an interview. “We are really researching what menstrual equity looks like in other schools, like Goucher College and Brown.”

Due to COVID-19, the task force has had to postpone the trial run for on-campus products, but now they are researching what products to buy that are the most ecofriendly, hypoallergenic, and cost-effective. “Right now, the school has funded us money, so we are going to spend every cent that we can,” said Van Syckel.

The task force’s job is to make products and education accessible to all on Catholic University’s campus. “I’m Catholic, so when I think about menstrual equity it is a sanctity of life issue for me,” said Van Syckel. “Because number one we as Catholics are pro-life, so this is a prolife issue in my opinion because if you don’t have access to

information about your menstrual system and the way that it works you can’t accurately conceive or natural family plan.”

Education about periods is more widespread than ever. Days for Girls is a non-profit organization that provides womxn in underdeveloped countries sustainable period products and reproductive education that they are unable to receive otherwise. These products are helping young women continue their daily lives with their periods so that they don’t have to miss out on things like education.

American University has a local chapter of Days for Girls on campus. “Here at AU mostly what we do is educate and spread awareness about periods and try to break the stigmas around it,” said Hayley Page, the President of Days for Girls AU. The club often fundraises in order to get the materials to make reusable pads, and from there the club can then sew the pads and send them off to people who need them. The reusable pads come in a drawstring bag so that girls have ways of carrying it with them without feeling stigmatized.

The fight for menstrual equity continues to be a work in progress. Countless organizations like H*yas for Change, Catholic University of America’s Menstrual Equity Task Force, The Period Project and Days for Girls are working to make menstrual equity a reality not only on college campuses but around the world. Legislation is constantly being pushed to get rid of the tampon tax. Organizations like Period Equity are achieving this and believe, “Menstrual products should be tax-exempt. They should be affordable and available for all, safe for our bodies and the planet. Periods should not hold anyone back, period.” Shattering the stigma of menstruation and creating a fair society for all who menstruate is a stepping stone to equality. There is still a lot of work to do.