GRSJ224/MenstruationandDisplacement/

Menstruation and Displacement

Feminine hygiene products and clean facilities to help menstrual hygiene are often sparse within the community of displaced women and women in need. For women living without a home, it creates an additional disadvantage over men living without a home as they have to attempt to come up with the funds to buy feminine hygiene products when they could be using the money towards other resources, or puts the women at risk of medical issues from unsanitary alternatives. The topic of feminine hygiene and menstrual cycles goes unknown by many due to its cultural history of being a taboo topic. Additionally, in politics, the issue has been considered taboo and due to the lack of female representation in political history, the topic of taxation on feminine hygiene products has not been a pressing issue in many countries. The taxations cause these necessary products to become even more unattainable for women in need. Having the proper resources for women in handling menstruation can change not only displaced women’s physical health but their psychological mindset.

Intersectionality

Women are predominantly at a disadvantage in general due to their gender being viewed as inferior to males. When it comes to women who are displaced from a home they not only suffer the same burdens as men who are displaced but also have a greater financial burden when it comes to dealing with their involuntary menstrual cycle. Therefore, women who already make only approximately 79% of what men do annually, they have an intersection of also having higher costs for necessities. With many displaced women lacking the financial means to purchase feminine hygiene products it can leave them using unsanitary methods to ease the issue, that can lead to infection. Additionally, especially in underdeveloped countries, the lack of proper feminine hygiene products and facilities has been connected to an increase in absences from school for women. This can leave women in an even more of a disadvantage as they miss opportunities for education which can be the foundation to acquiring jobs. Feelings of fear, confusion, and shame can be associated with women’s menstrual cycles when they lack the proper means to care for their menstrual cycle.

Medical Risks

Many displaced women lack the physical provisions necessary to properly handle their menstrual cycle such as lockable private washrooms, clean water and soap, and a private airspace to dry wet clothes and closed bins or incinerators for used pads. [20,23-25] Due to this lack of resources, displaced women often manage their menstrual cycles with methods that can be unhygienic. By using unhygienic methods to handle menstruation women can put themselves at risk of developing gynecologic infections, a large health issue globally. Reproductive tract infections are “a major public health concern worldwide and RTI are particularly widespread in low-income settings. [10,11] The proportion of this burden that can be attributed to poor menstrual hygiene management.”

The Taboo Topic

The topic of issue of feminine hygiene products and the issue of displaced women struggling with feminine hygiene is not largely known. This unawareness is largely due to the cultural matter of the topic throughout history as cultural unease about women’s bodies in general and menstruation, in particular, have been considered taboo.ref><Crawford, B. J., & Spivack, C. (05/01/2017). Tampon taxes, discrimination, and human rights Law School of the University of Wisconsin, etc.</ref> “Women’s (involuntary) bleeding is meant to happen “out of sight, out of mind,” whereas men’s (voluntary) bleeding in war, for example, is valorized.” This leaves many women secretly suffering at risk of medical issues due to the lack of awareness on the topic.

Tampon Tax

While research is advocating that feminine hygiene products are in fact necessities, many places still consider feminine hygiene products a “luxury.” When feminine hygiene products are considered a “luxury” they then have sales tax on the products. This sales tax is often called the “Tampon Tax.” Canada was the first to abolish the sales tax on feminine hygiene products in 2015. However, in the United States, only five states have removed the sales tax from feminine hygiene products. The government in the United States still considers feminine hygiene products a luxury instead of a necessity. Since feminine hygiene products do not qualify under “necessary goods” as groceries and medical products are, in the majority of the United States organizations to help benefit homeless women cannot purchase these items. Additionally, the sales tax on feminine hygiene products that women with little to no income struggle to afford, become even more unattainable with sales tax.

Downtown Eastside

Within Vancouver, there is the issue of the lack of resources for women in need. In the Downtown Eastside obtaining social housing is the stated goal of many women in need.

However, insights have exclaimed that there are long waiting lists, discrimination, and sheer serendipity when it comes to getting social housing. 
This limitation of shelter for women in need results in a lack of places for menstrual hygiene to be facilitated. Women residing in the Downtown Eastside area have described living without shelter as “living out in the cold and rain, and sleeping in dirt”