The High Cost of Being a Woman: Why Feminine Products Should Be Free

Why feminine sanitary products should be free (essay)

Whether it's Aunt Flo visiting, Shark Week, Flying the Japanese flag, the redcoats coming, or surfing the crimson wave, menstruation is a natural bodily function that half of the world's population experiences. However, despite its prevalence, the topic of whether or not feminine hygiene products should be provided free of charge remains a taboo subject in many societies. To discuss why feminine products should be free, this essay argues that making these essential products available at no cost is not only a matter of basic human decency, but a necessary step in promoting the success, confidence, and happiness of women worldwide. Research shows that over half of women who have experienced period poverty report feeling degraded and having their opportunities limited due to a lack of access to sanitary products. For many women, especially those living in poverty, the cost of these products can be prohibitive, leading to unhygienic practices and missed days of school or work. By providing free feminine products, we can remove one more barrier that women face in achieving their full potential and ensure that no one has to suffer the indignity of being unprepared or unable to afford essential hygiene products.

Once every month, a woman’s uterus lining gets thicker in order to prepare for a fertilised egg if they happen to become pregnant. If the egg doesn’t get fertilised, that lining is released from the body as blood through the vagina. This monthly process is what’s known as menstruation, or more commonly, a period. Although women are unable to control their period flow, on average it can last from around four to seven days, and throughout that time, bleed erratically. Toilet paper is an obvious hygiene necessity that every individual is entitled to, free of charge, when using a public restroom. Regardless of the fact that both crucial products serve the same purpose in tending to our normal bodily functions, sanitary pads are not given the equivalent support and provision they should be eligible to. When accessible, these products prevent women from bleeding fitfully over themselves and their surroundings, such as park benches or train seats that are in use by multiple people each day. I can assure you that no sensible person is going to be at ease with sitting comfortably on a stranger’s blood stain, for evident cleanliness and practical reasons. Without a shadow of a doubt, certain logical consequences of menstruation clearly shows it is perhaps slightly more significant than toilet paper in some sense, and should therefore be given the same consideration. When “that time of the month” unexpectedly creeps up on you, for over 8 million school girls living in South Africa this instantly means new expenses, days absent from school, and repeatedly dealing with regular health issues and infections. Having to sustain your family in a deprived environment is already increasingly difficult as it is, and many families struggle to expand their weekly budget far enough to replace blood soaked underwear and fund even the most simplistic of sanitary products, so does it really stand as a surprise to you that these have gradually become luxury items?

Cheaper alternatives that the most desperate of girls have been known to fall back on are feathers, plucked straight from a slaughtered chicken. Some have even resolved to sit naked, on a pile of alluvial soil overnight. Poverty stricken girls refer to this monthly trauma as the “week of shame” where these harmful, makeshift products scarcely do any justice in soaking up their monthly spills. However more often than not, there are no other options but to bleed straight into your underwear, which is likely to be your only pair. It’s difficult to comprehend for the most of us, who throw these products into our shopping trolley so haphazardly each month that what is a slight inconvenience to us, is such a worldwide phenomenon and source of worry to others. In developing countries, the harrowing reality for girls, some as young as ten, is that once they mark the change into womanhood they are immediately struck with the burden of managing these recurring troubles, almost like a shadow they are unable to get rid of. Over 80% of thriving students across the globe are having to routinely miss out on a week of their education, month after month, year after year, all because they were born with a uterus. Whenever I don’t attend school, I am instantly hit with the pressure of catching up with the ample amount of work I have missed, so I can’t even begin to imagine how I would be able to cope with a whole week’s worth.

Menstruation is quite clearly robbing girls of their education and causing them to suffer social isolation and humiliation, which has been proven to have a devastating effect towards them later on in life as nearly half of these women now suffer from either anxiety or depression. It is almost indisputably guaranteed that if men were to experience a visit from Cousin Red, or had to ride the cotton pony each month, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. For over centuries now there has always been an unmistakable distinction of the way men are treated in comparison to women, whether that is through appearance, the workplace, or society as a whole. Consequently, it is obvious that their situation would be treated entirely different in both a blatantly biased and sexist way. Products would of course, without a second judgment be considered a necessity, just like toilet paper, and as a result would undoubtedly be federally funded which would save men over £18, 000 during their lifetime.

Added to this, I will never understand just why condoms, being already tax free and paid by the government in so many places are thought to be more significantly necessary than sanitary products, even though they are a simple requirement whereas period pads are a definite must. Having sex is a choice. Having a period is the complete opposite. It is as if we are being forcedly charged just for our gender, especially as on the whole, women are paid less than men. Furthermore, surely now you must agree with me that it is completely unreasonable to charge women for something that they have no control over?