Author: Leila O'Rourke
In a woman’s lifetime, she is expected to menstruate for a total of 6.25 years, meaning that, on average, a woman would spend approximately $4,750 just on pads. This does not include other menstrual products such as tampons, which are taxed as a luxury in many countries. Menstrual precariousness can be defined as the difficulties to access sanitary products to live through menstruation, due to factors such as poverty or lack of availability of these products. This is why Unicef SciencesPo Menton has decided to kick off October with a partnership with the Feminist Union for WoMenton mnth! The associations worked together to fight menstrual precarity with a hygiene drive and general information about the issue.
“Many young women miss school because they cannot afford sanitary products. We need free, universal access to them.” -Gemma Abbott, The Guardian
Hygiene collect
For a week in mid-October, a box for hygiene products was placed at the entrance of the campus. Students would pass it on their way to and from classes, enticing them to make a donation of sanitary pads and tampons. With the invaluable help from the Feminist Union of SciencesPo Menton and our student body, we were able to fill most of the boxes with donations. The products were then redistributed to the SciencesPo Med Liban association and Une Voix Pour Elles. Fighting menstrual precariousness with hygiene drives is especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic, as disrupted access to these products has been greatly exacerbated, along with access to education. Education is one of the main resources for fighting menstrual precarity, as it eliminates the stigma and taboo that women often experience surrounding their period. This is why Unicef SciencesPo Menton has also committed to the education of our community on menstrual precariousness.
Instagram series
To educate our community about the issue of menstrual precariousness, we posted a series of Instagram posts including information on menstruation and period poverty. These posts were centralized around the goal of raising awareness of the issue. Menstrual precariousness is not talked about enough; yet, it affects 500,000,000 women in the world, with 2,000,000 being in France. We hoped to cast light on a topic that is not discussed enough, and to motivate students to think about menstrual precarity more frequently. One of our posts encouraged students to “Think about WoMenton month during [their] next groceries, and buy a pack of sanitary pads or tampons.” By enabling the student body to act on this issue that they might not be familiar with, we have given them an opportunity to help fight period poverty, one step at a time.
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