In this op-ed, Sophia Bush and Nia Linder Batts explore sustainable solutions to period poverty.
As best friends, business partners, charitable organizers, former small business owners — of an inclusive salon and accompanying philanthropic organization in Detroit — and two of the strategic advisors to the First Women’s Bank, we understand the barriers that women must overcome in so many arenas of life. The world, and the society we live in, was not designed for us. But every day, we bear witness to awe-inspiring women who are smashing glass ceilings, clearing hurdles, and breaking down doors — only to hold them open for the women and girls following behind them.
The up and coming generation is one of problem solvers, inclusive and considerate thinkers, and believers in building new systems, since the old ones aren't even doing that much for the people at the top. We worry every day about the adults, but to quote Lisa Cholodenko, “the kids are all right.” We believe in you, and so deeply in the vision of the future you are fighting to see.
Which is probably why we get so pissed off when easily solvable problems become issues so big, that they negatively impact so many school aged girls and women. That’s exactly what’s happening with period poverty.
A 2017 study found that nearly 1 in 5 girls in the United States has missed school because she doesn’t have access to the period products she needs. And, according to the Alliance for Period Supplies, 1 in 3 low income people have missed work, school, or other events because they couldn’t access period products. Aren’t we dealing with enough in our daily fights against book bans, climate change, racial injustice, and predatory lenders? We have to walk our path and protect it, all while trying to cultivate our talents and discover our passions. How do we determine what to do with our time here, how to live our wild and precious lives?
We live in a country where one fifth of menstruating students between the ages of 16 and 24 are leaving class early or missing school due to a lack of access to menstrual care products because of financial barriers. When the average age of menstrual onset is around 12, and this being a monthly struggle, imagine how much school they may miss by college — when 14.2% of menstruating students have experienced period poverty in the last year, and 10% of menstruating students experience this every month.
Now add in the reality that 86% of menstruating people in general have reported starting their periods in public without the supplies they need. We have a crisis on our hands. Period poverty is a real, devastating issue for all people, regardless of gender identity. It creates gender disparity and inequality that can last for decades. Putting a stop to period poverty can increase school attendance, recuperate lost work hours, and is simply the right thing, the human thing, to do.
We think the answer, in part, lies in public bathrooms. In a public bathroom toilet paper is free. Paper towels are free too. So, why aren't tampons and pads? Each of the aforementioned products is a tool made to respond to a bodily function or need, but the tools women and menstruating folks need are the only ones we don’t freely offer in the public spaces that we all share. Every business and municipal building that has public bathrooms purchases paper towels and toilet paper — and it's time period products are treated the same. Of course, we purchase these items for our own homes, but we are not expected to carry our own toilet paper with us when we leave the house. When so much of the population will need period products for significant portions of their lives, why is it us who are not properly resourced?
But here’s the thing: Just ordering products or participating in donation drives doesn’t quite go far enough. When boxes of products show up at schools, there must be a plan to distribute them in an easy, organized, and convenient way. Some schools put period products in the nurse’s office, which adds an extra step, and potential embarrassment (even though we all know periods shouldn’t involve shame, the reality is that it still exists). Others might put them in a basket, but there still needs to be a plan for who provides the basket and restocks it. The more barriers — physical and logistical — there are to accessing products, the less likely young people are to be able to use them freely. While we have work to do around dismantling stigma, we have to provide solutions that meet students where they are now. In school bathrooms. Let’s stop taxing girls’ time! And let’s look to innovative solutions being created by brilliant young minds like Claire Coder of Aunt Flow.
Founded in 2016, when Claire was just 18 and caught by surprise by her period while out at an event, Aunt Flow is on a mission to make the world better for people with periods. They are replacing archaic, coin-operated tampon dispensers with patented free-vend period product dispensers that are rust-resistant, hold five times the product, and only take 30 seconds to reload. Her dispensers allow schools and businesses to offer 100% organic cotton tampons and pads for free. We’ll say it again: Toilet paper is offered for free, pads and tampons should be, too.
Thanks to Claire, people are starting to get it. Through her leadership, the company has implemented free period products in over 30,000 bathrooms. She has advocated for access across the country, and just last year, HB162 was signed into law in Utah with unanimous bipartisan support, requiring free period products to be available in all bathrooms in K-12 schools. And other states are following suit. In addition to being a smart and efficient business filling an enormous need, Coder’s company has made philanthropy a part of her corporate mission. For every 10 tampons and pads Aunt Flow sells, they donate one. So far, they’ve donated 3,200,000 organic cotton period products to menstruators in need, and as they grow that number will too. It’s for all of these critically important reasons that we are so proud to be investors in Claire and Aunt Flow. Her vision of the future is the one we want our kids to live in.
And it’s thanks to advocacy like hers — and the data that proves that period products are problem solvers — that states around the nation are moving to implement Aunt Flow dispensers and products, finally leveling the playing field for girls, women, and all menstruating folks. It can feel hard at times, but we have to believe that a better version of this world is possible. If you do too and you want solutions in your schools and on your campuses, make some noise with us! Tell anyone who will listen that you want to see free dispensers in your bathrooms. That it is your right!
We are so proud to be part of the Aunt Flow team, as both investors and philanthropically-minded women. Helping menstruating students stay in school and pursue their education matters to us. Seeing them achieve their professional goals and launch businesses that change the world, matters to us. Helping them break down systemic barriers and eliminate disparities in access to capital and other resources matters to us. From school bathrooms to board rooms, we want to support and invest in women. To do that, we have to matter to each other.
As Alice Walker reminds us, “we are the ones we have been waiting for.”
Sophia Bush and Nia Linder Batts are General Partners at Union Heritage Ventures and lifelong activists for women and girls.
