Over the past years, activists have made important gains in the effort to provide people who menstruate with adequate and free supplies. In Canada, all washrooms in federally regulated workplaces must have period supplies . In Manitoba, period supplies are offered to students in all public schools in a three-year initiative through a corporate partnership and charitable donation.
Further from home, Scotland became the first country to make period products free to all in 2020 , and more recently, to our south, Minnesota’s initiative to make menstrual products free in schools has made headlines . Yet, despite these advances, menstruation continues to shape lives in negative ways and diminish opportunities for many of those who experience it . Providing free supplies in some places — while necessary in the movement towards equity — is only part of the story.
Shifting the conversation from period poverty to menstrual justice is an important step. Menstrual justice is about ensuring that all people who menstruate be provided with the resources and infrastructure to do so safely and with dignity. Heading here A recent project by the Centre for Human Rights Research explored menstrual justice at the University of Manitoba.
While our project centred on the experiences of students, staff and faculty on the campus, questions of menstrual justice are important wherever people who menstruate live, work or study. For example, rural, remote and northern communities have especially pr.