Period Poverty is an overlooked but insidious gendered inequality facing society. Katy Flynn speaks to some of those affected and lifts the lid on this hidden problem.
Sitting in the office of Angela Vance, a support worker for Lodging House Mission, I'm having a surprisingly candid and personal conversation. It's not every day I go and sit with strangers and talk about periods, let alone period poverty – a problem that affects not only the nearly 13,000 homeless women in Scotland, but also women on low incomes or living in poverty.
The Lodging House Mission is a Glasgow based charity providing support for the homeless, vulnerable and socially excluded; Mary and Sue*, two friends, are two of its service users. They stand huddled in their padded parka coats, looking nervously around when Angela asks them if they'd come into the office for five, ten minutes for a chat about – of all things – menstruation.
"What about Maggie, would she no?" asks Mary nervously, wringing her hands ever so slightly. Sue looks on quietly, clearly a little apprehensive about the subject.
"I don't think she takes a period anymore," replies Angela. Mary and Sue, still slightly hesitant, come in. I smile benignly as they sit down.
Angela sits across from me, behind her desk. Over her shoulder, I can see a cupboard in which Angela keeps the tampons and sanitary towels donated for the women who use the centre's services. Much like the products themselves are hidden away in Angela's cupboard, period poverty is for the most part still a hidden issue in Scotland.
Even if homeless women can access tampons and sanitary towels, the lack of a place to stay means that women are forced to only take what they can carry. "They maybe just take what they need off you that day," said Angela, "if it's tampons they'll maybe take a couple more 'cause they're easier to carry about, but even at that, it's difficult." There are also health implications around limited or no access to sanitary products – if women are unable to change sanitary products, especially tampons, for longer periods of time, then it could increase risks of conditions such as Toxic Shock Syndrome.
Even the social taboo about sanitary products and periods can be a barrier to access. "Some of them can be a bit embarrassed about men hearing that they need 'women's things' remarks Angela. "It's still quite a taboo subject." Along with other hidden costs – the cost of replacing blood stained clothes, bedsheets or sleeping bags – period poverty seems to be adding up to one big pain in the uterus.
Lodging House Mission and similar charities rely on donations, but if women don't know that these services are available, or if lack of funding or donations means that charities can no longer provide these services, then Scotland's homeless and impoverished women could be left caught in the period poverty trap.
Labour MSP Monica Lennon is one woman looking to change that. In her address to the Scottish Parliament at the end of September, Ms Lennon said that "this distressing gendered inequality is one that must be confronted" by Parliament. Clearly passionate about the cause, she was happy to answer questions via email. "Through speaking to food bank volunteers," Ms Lennon writes, "and other organisations it became clear that whilst there isn't a lot of data/research available, anecdotally the same themes kept reoccurring.
Some women are already beginning to take things into their own hands, setting up societies with universities like GU Red Alert, who recently conducted a washbag campaign, donating the washbags to the Simon Community. However, as Ms Lennon says, it will take legislation to eradicate period poverty.
Wrapping up and saying good bye, Angela ponders the possibility of putting up a poster in the female toilets of LHM's premises, letting women know that they can ask Angela for tampons and sanitary towels.
Mary and Sue have been comfortable chatting, but tighten up a bit when I bring it back to formalities and ask if I can check the spellings of names. Their reluctance to give me a last name is a reminder that, no matter how open our conservation has been, the stigma of talking about periods is a deep-seated one.
Posted in Features and tagged #periodpoverty, big red taboo, education, menstruation, monica lennon, period poverty. Bookmark the permalink.


http://nextrightthingbook.com/ comes out April 2, 2019!
For more information on Alexander John Shaia, visit http://www.quadratos.com/.
Thoughts from Ashton on the pace of love and detachment from our manufactured self.
Ashton's insights on operating within and from our soul space.
The Best of 2018 from Good / True / & Beautiful with Ashton Gustafson.


In the inspiring introduction to this visionary work, John Dear begins with these words, "I've spent my life chasing an idea — the idea of nonviolence." For four decades this intrepid and zealous priest has taught, preached, and prayed around the world. His work has been spurred on by the pioneering efforts of his spiritual heroes: Mahatma Gandhi, Dorothy Day, and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Their influence shows: Dear has been arrested eighty times for his nonviolent civil disobedience against wars, human right violations, and other power plays of institutions. He confesses, "I've spent nearly every day of my life trying to talk people out of killing others, waging war, or quietly supporting the culture of violence. It's been a long difficult trip, but as my friend Daniel Berrigan once said to me, at least it hasn't been dull."
In They Will Inherit the Earth, Dear outlines his fresh and creative commitment to making "the connection between active nonviolence and oneness with creation." His stories of people taking a courageous stand — some at risk of being killed for doing so — serve as an inspiration for us to take our own steps forward to protect the earth. He shows us what he has been doing recently to play his part in practicing oneness with nature, such as learning from indigenous women, resisting the Dakota Access Pipeline, working with the environmental activist Bill McKibben, and musing on Pope Francis's encyclical on the environment.
Dear's mission involves a thoughtful and earnest critique of permanent war, corporate greed, economic inequality, gun deaths, armed drones, selfish consumerism, nuclear proliferation, systemic racism, and extreme poverty. All of this prophetic resistance speaks to the need for all of us to heed the words of Martin Luther King Jr., who said: "The choice today is no longer between violence and nonviolence. It is either nonviolence or nonexistence."


Art at Ancrum fast approaches. This means my studio is swept and tidied and transformed to a gallery space for the long bank holiday weekend - 29, 30 April 1st May .
Do come along! You never know what treasures lurk behind the dusty blue doors. And if you come early there are the traditional free rock buns on offer! See you there!