It’s unfortunate knowing that in the year 2022, as times have supposedly evolved, young girls are still being stripped from their education. The reason for that may surprise you.
Period poverty is a form of gender inequality because women don’t have reliable access to products for something in their bodies that they cannot control to begin with.
In the year 2019, nearly one in five girls in the United States, including 143,000 girls in the NYC area and 88,000 girls in the Los Angeles area, have missed school due to the lack of access to sanitary products. It’s ridiculous that basic necessities for women, such as tampons and pads are an expense and are still, what seems to be, a taboo subject.
The average age for a girl to get her period is around 12, meaning that until menopause, this expense for menstrual products is a lifetime financial burden. The average cost of a box of 36 pads is around $7. With the understanding that a young girl or woman has to change their pad multiple times a day, and a standard period lasts between four and seven days, a box runs out fast (especially with more women in a household). Therefore, there needs to be a light shed on period poverty because right now it is not public information.
Always, a menstrual hygiene brand, partnered with actress Sophia Bush in 2019 and since then, have continued to make a difference by donating more than 20 million period products to school aged girls in the U.S. If more brands were to follow in their footsteps, the conversation on unequal access to sanitary products would be elevated.
The Javelina CARE Pantry, located in Rm. 220 at the MSUB, is available to aid students in the event of a short-term food/ hygiene shortage. Related to this global crisis, the pantry provides hygiene products, such as pads and tampons for free. If you or anyone you know is struggling with financial costs of basic items that should be free to begin with, visit https://www.tamuk.edu/dean/javelinaemergencyaid/JavelinaCAREpantry.html.