In the previous to International Women’s Strikewhich is held every March 8, the Government of France announced that from 2024 it will reimburse the reusable menstrual management productssuch as underwear and menstrual cups, to women under 25 years of age.
“Menstrual precariousness is a reality that affects too many women. It’s a daily injustice“, considered the French Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne in a recent Twitter post. Also, this Monday night, she told the France 5 network: “It is unthinkable that women cannot get the protections they need“.
The Social Security portfolio will register this measure in the budget 2024 so that from the State the purchase of these products in pharmacies is reinstated to its citizens, explained the centrist head of government.
“With this new social progress, we intensify our fight against menstrual precariousness“Health Minister François Braun wrote on his Twitter account.
This is a new advance by the French government in terms of reproductive and sexual health rights: since January 1, condoms are free for young people under 26, as well as emergency contraceptives for all women, without medical prescription.
Menstrual management: European women have access to more rights
Spain is another country on the European continent that recently made history with a revolutionary law so that female workers suffering from menstrual cramps can apply for medical leave. With 185 votes in favor and 154 against, the rule discussed last February made Spain the country in Europe and one of the few in the world to have this legislation.
The text of the law states that “it will be considered a special situation of temporary disability for common contingencies, that sick leave in which the woman may find herself in case of secondary disabling menstruation or dysmenorrhea secondary associated with pathologies such as endometriosis“.
“It is about giving an adequate regulation to this pathological situation in order to eliminate any type of negative bias in the workplace“, they argued in the text.
Although the law does not specify how long this sick leave will last, the General Union of Workers Spanish warned about the possibility that employers want to avoid hiring women. In the same line, the People’s Party (PP), the main opposition party, warned of the risk of “marginalization, stigmatization” and “negative consequences in the labor market” for women. So far, the countries that have similar legislation are 5: Japan, South Korea, taiwan, Indonesia and Zambia.
8M: resources and policies to accompany menstrual management in Argentina
In 2022, the Ministry of Economy together with UNICEF prepared a document on the “Access to menstrual management for more equality“, in which the different provincial governments were offered information and tools to debate and put some ideas into action.
The text holds that in Argentina “more than 12 million girls, adolescents, women, trans and non-binary menstruate”and highlights that these populations suffer from “obstacles in access to menstrual management products (such as wipes, tampons, “cups” and other products), as well as taboos around menstruation”, which generates “consequences on their health, education and well-being“.
“Menstruation is a factor of inequality. Menstrual management products (PGM) represent a cost for menstruating people, What are they, at the same time, the portion of society with the lowest income, higher levels of precariousness, unemployment and poverty. Low-income households are the ones that feel the greatest impacts, with girls and adolescents missing school or their recreational activities, and women absent from their work spaces,” argue the economy portfolio and the international organization.
In this sense, the campaign #MenstruActionfrom the Economía Feminita collective, reported that The cost of menstruating with wipes in Argentina during 2022 was $7,373 pesos; while with tampons, $7745. This serves to demonstrate with real examples the problems that affect millions of women and girls in a situation of economic vulnerability.
“The myths around menstruation and the fact that it is treated as an “intimate” issue, even shameful, are factors that lead to its invisibility. For this reason, it is necessary to advance in policies that guarantee a equal access to menstrual management for all menstruating girls, adolescents, women and peopleand promote the environmental sustainability“, the national government pointed out in its document.
So much so that for a few years several projects were launched to achieve the “Menstrual Justice”: the governments of Tucuman, Catamarca, The Rioja, Mendoza, saint Louis, chaco, Missions, Santa Fe, Between rivers, Land of Fire, CABA and the province of Buenos Aires were some of those who promised to legislate projects to guarantee menstrual education and the delivery of free sustainable menstrual management products in certain sectors.
In December 2020, more than one hundred officials, legislators, referents and activists from all over the country participated in the National Forum of Actions to achieve the Menstrual Justice by in order to put the issue on the agenda and coordinate lines of action on the subject.
companies like AYSA, led by Malena Galmarini, began in 2021 to pay a menstrual refund to their employees for the cost of supplies for menstrual management. That same year, the Minister for Women, Gender and Diversity, Ayelén Mazzina, began to implement saint Louis the #YoMenstrúo Sustainable Menstrual Management Program, which aimed to reach 50,000 girls, adolescents and menstruating people between the ages of 11 and 15 with information. There are already at least seven provinces and more than thirty municipalities with regulations and different menstrual management programs.
In 2022, jump was one of the provinces of Argentina to take a step forward with the approval of the Comprehensive Menstrual Health and Management Program for the capital of Salta, an initiative that also entered the provincial Legislature. The program is intended to establish a regime for the provision of menstrual management products and ensure the promotion of menstrual health, in order to make it visible as a matter of public interest. According to the project, this will guarantee as a right effective access, free of charge and unrestricted, to these products for those who are in a situation of socioeconomic vulnerability.
