How Does Lack Of Access To Period Products Affect Women’s Empowerment?

Lack of access to menstrual products, sanitation, and education on periods undermines women's empowerment. Without these in place, girls miss school and women miss work, cutting their participation in the economy and deepening existing inequalities. An estimated 500 million women and girls face this period poverty every month.

Imagine having to choose between spending a certain amount of money on home/school supplies versus buying a few sanitary pads EVERY MONTH. Imagine having to skip school again because there’s no washroom for you to go to and change your sanitary pad.

Many experts have found that most physical health risks linked to urinary tract infections and reproductive health result from the practices a woman must adopt during her menstrual cycle or period.

This is the reality for an estimated 500 million women and girls every month, according to the World Bank, which is the number who lack access to menstrual products or a safe, private place to manage their periods. The figures are most staggering in lower-income countries, where the cost of a single pack of pads can force a choice between a bag of wheat and a month's supply of sanitary products. Where products are out of reach, women often fall back on rags, scraps of cloth, or even ash and leaves, then face the added burden of hiding, washing, and drying those rags so that no one knows they are menstruating.

It would be a mistake, though, to file this away as a problem only for the developing world. Period poverty exists across the United States, the UK, Australia, and Canada too. A 2023 survey found that roughly a quarter of US teens and about a third of US adults who menstruate have struggled to afford period products, and in the UK, Plan International found that around 3 in 10 girls had trouble affording or accessing them. Many resort to using products for longer than is safe or substituting toilet paper, which carries its own health risks.

Period Poverty

The lack of access to menstrual products (tampons/pads/cups), hygiene facilities, education, and waste management makes up the whole gamut of what experts now call period poverty.

As global citizens, we have come a long way in understanding and improving access to menstrual products compared to 100 years ago, but we still have a long way to go.

The COVID-19 pandemic set that progress back. Lockdowns disrupted supply chains and household incomes, and the squeeze on education and affordable healthcare pushed period poverty further down the list of priorities. That shift hit young women hardest, and in some countries menstrual health initiatives stalled while other emergencies took precedence.

Policies cannot stop at cutting taxes on products. Access also means making menstrual products available in public places and providing clean toilets where women can change them in privacy.

Alongside this, a collective effort is needed to educate girls and boys about the menstrual cycle. Women, too, must be informed about the products available and the healthy practices to follow during menstruation.

Period Poverty And Empowerment

Empowering someone means enabling them to realize their full potential. Period poverty hampers participation in economic activities at work, school and community. It is not a task that one woman can fight alone.

Issues of mindset due to wrongly held beliefs demand intervention at a higher level. Multiple governmental and non-governmental organizations must unite, establish networks with the local community, build trust and faith and fight taboos.

Simultaneously, economic access to menstrual products must be improved by making menstrual hygiene products accessible.

Cutting taxes and building better network supply chains is one such path forward.

Additionally, governments must also focus on building basic social infrastructure, such as access to running water and the construction of toilets.

Scotland passed a law in 2021, with its main duties coming into force in 2022, that makes sanitary pads and tampons free in schools, community centers, and other public places. It is the first country in the world to do this!

Other countries have started moving in the same direction. On the tax front, Kenya led the way back in 2004 as the first country to scrap value-added tax on menstrual products, and at least 17 countries (including the UK, Canada, Australia, and several US states) have since dropped or never charged the so-called tampon tax. Nations such as Nigeria, Lebanon, and Tanzania have also cut taxes on locally made products at various points.

But Does The Elimination Of Tax Suffice?

There is mixed evidence for the success of this strategy, due to complex market structures that persist in economies. For instance, in some countries, the basic price of the product is so high that eliminating taxes does not drastically reduce the product’s price, so it remains unaffordable.

In fact, the government’s revenue loss becomes significant in such cases and hampers their ability to fund other interventions.

Basically, it is extremely crucial for countries to consciously adopt policies that make a significant dent in bringing about the required change in these underlying social norms and social infrastructure. Only this will improve access for all women.

Global Initiatives

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 interlinked goals adopted by all 193 United Nations member states in 2015, to be achieved by 2030. They address issues spanning health, education, gender equality, the environment, and economic growth, each with its own set of targets.

The deprivations tied to period poverty cut across several of these goals, most directly the ones on good health and well-being (SDG 3), quality education (SDG 4), gender equality (SDG 5), and clean water and sanitation (SDG 6). The catch is that the goals are not legally binding on any nation. Many countries acknowledge menstrual health in principle, but whether words turn into funded programs is far less certain.

That is why the practical steps matter more than the declarations. Real progress comes from organizations such as UNICEF, UN Women, and the World Bank working with local communities to build toilets, supply free products in schools, and chip away at the stigma that keeps periods a taboo subject.

As global citizens, we have come a long way compared to 100 years ago, but the gap between policy on paper and a girl having a clean, private place to change a pad is still very real. Closing it, in wealthy and poorer countries alike, is what turns menstrual health from a slogan into genuine empowerment.