Diaper Need, Period Poverty, and the Fight for Equity
The idea that everyone has a right to hygiene supplies and that no one should suffer because they cannot afford an adequate supply thereof, seems obvious to us, but the fact remains that diaper need and period poverty are both widespread. One in three caretakers can't afford an adequate supply of diapers for their young children. A 2019 survey of low-income women indicated that 1/5 of poor women struggle to afford period products on a monthly basis with 2/3 of the respondents reporting that they had lacked the resources to purchase menstrual hygiene products during the previous year. It's depressing to us that something so basic isn't treated the same way as food, water and air.
But lately, we've seen encouraging signs around the world indicating that people are at last beginning to recognize that hygiene supplies are a matter of basic human dignity. Just this week Scotland began rolling out the infrastructure to implement a bill that was passed unanimously by parliament in November of 2020, guaranteeing period products to anyone who needs them. Pads and tampons will soon be available in schools, libraries, and community centers across Scotland. We were particularly encouraged to note that the the latest plans to implement the bill contemplate the needs of those with mobility issues by allowing for hygiene supplies to be delivered if needed. Similarly, though on a smaller scale, the city of Dallas launched a ground-breaking program in February of this year--Period Access Dallas (PAD)--using cash provided by the American Rescue Plan Act to stock public facilities including community recreation centers and libraries with a total of $200,000 in tampons and pads.
Activists outside the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh last February gathered in support of legislation for free period products. Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images
Period poverty, like diaper need, is very real. And because public discussion of bodily functions is so stigmatized, both often have significant negative mental effects as well as physical. Menstruation capable people who can't afford hygiene supplies and so go without report feeling humiliated, just like parents when they can't provide diapers for their children. Menstruating teens who can't afford or access hygiene supplies skip school or wear pads and tampons longer than recommended, risking UTIs and septic shock. Caretakers who can't afford sufficient diapers for their infants sometimes have to keep them home from preschool or daycare or reuse diapers, similarly risking negative health results.
Moreover the high cost of hygiene supplies disproportionately affects women, trans and non-binary people, who already have lower salaries than their male counterparts, experience poverty in greater numbers, and are more likely to be primary caretakers for infants and diaper-age children. Even without taxes explicitly attached to hygiene products, the 'pink tax' is no myth. Seeing a lack of access to such hygiene supplies can through the lens of gender equity and reproductive justice, lends new urgency to the fight.
At the Brooklyn Diaper Project we recognize that reproductive justice means not only having the right to choose when and if to have children, but also the right to parent children safely and with access to food, housing, and healthcare resources. We also recognize that these are issues that affect everyone. A society that treats hygiene supplies as a luxury consumer good rather than a human right betrays a fundamental lack of equity.
It is absurd that hygiene supplies like pads and tampons—and diapers—aren't treated as the necessity that they are. Sometimes it gets exhausting to keep saying the obvious: that no one should lack the supplies they need to stay clean and healthy. But lately seeing various communities inching towards equity around the globe and recognizing that period poverty and diaper need are fundamental issues of injustice is giving us the encouragement to keep fighting.