Briefing paper : assessing the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 as model menstruation legislation

This paper is based on ‘Ending Period Poverty in Scotland: A Historical and International Perspective’ funded by the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Arts and Humanities Research Network Award from 2020 to 2022 (grant number 64992), and administratively based at the University of St Andrews with Principal Investigator Bettina Bildhauer and Co-Investigators Sharra Vostral and Camilla Mørk Røstvik.This briefing paper discusses how to include historical perspectives to assess the potential success for current and future menstruation legislation. The case of Scotland provides an instructive example of law-making about free period products and period poverty. While commercial products are perceived as a solution, historical research suggests that cultural attitudes, lingering stigma, and regional differences affect opportunities for passing laws. To predict the likelihood that proposed menstrual product legislation might be adopted in other locations, historical factors related to attitudes about menstruation, including stigma, must be considered and understood to effect lasting change.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Introduction : The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 in the context of menstrual politics and history

The research for this Special Collection volume was funded by a Royal Society of Edinburgh’s Arts and Humanities Research Network Award (64992).In January 2021, Scotland became the first country in the world to make universal access to free period products a legal right, an initiative which attracted extraordinary international attention. This introduction outlines what is indeed new and ground-breaking about this law from the perspective of the history of menstruation, and what merely continues traditional and widespread conceptions, policies and practices surrounding menstruation. On the basis of an analysis of the parliamentary debates of the Act, we show that it gained broad political support by satisfying a combination of ten different political agendas: (1) promoting gender equality for women, while also (2) acknowledging broader gender diversity; (3) taking practical steps to alleviate one high-profile aspect of poverty at a relatively low overall cost to the state, while also (4) stimulating the production of menstrual products; (5) tackling menstrual stigma; (6) improving access to education; (7) working with grassroots campaigners; (8) improving public health; and (9) accommodating sustainability concerns; as well as (10) the desire to pass world-leading legislation in itself. In each case, we explore the extent to which the political aim is typical of, or departs from, wider trajectories in the history and politics of menstruation, and, where pertinent, trajectories in Scottish political history. The ten agendas in their international context provide kaleidoscopic insight into the current state of menstrual politics and history in Scotland and beyond. This introduction also situates this Special Collection as a whole in relation to the field of Critical Menstruation Studies and provides background information about the legislative process and key terminology in Scottish politics and in the history of menstruation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Toxic Shock Syndrome, Tampon Absorbency, and Feminist Science

Tampon-associated toxic shock syndrome (TSS) has disproportionately affected women, and specifically, menstruators.  By 1980, the Centers for Disease Control recommended that women limit their use of superabsorbent tampons since the risk for TSS increased with greater levels of absorption.  However, women had no way of following this advice since products did not have consistent absorbency labels.  A standard to set absorptive capacity as well as nomenclature was required, and the consensus process to do so was governed by ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials).  Esther Rome from the Boston Women's Health Book Collective participated as a consumer representative, and solicited feminist scientist Nancy Reame to help generate data on their behalf.  Importantly, they rejected the use of blue saline and "blue goo" as a menstrual fluid in the syngyna—the synthetic vagina simulacrum lab instrument—to test tampon absorbency, and insisted upon heparinized blood instead.  They challenged the process by which a standard is established, the method by which variables are controlled, and the erasure of menstrual fluid from tests about tampon absorbency. The feminist science yielded both usable and valid outcomes, with results that challenged the design of the experiment upon which standards were to be based.

Archive as Laboratory: STEM Students & STEM Collections presentation

Talk given at https://osf.io/view/HumforSTEM2018

Briefing paper:assessing the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021 as model menstruation legislation

This briefing paper discusses how to include historical perspectives to assess the potential success for current and future menstruation legislation. The case of Scotland provides an instructive example of law-making about free period products and period poverty. While commercial products are perceived as a solution, historical research suggests that cultural attitudes, lingering stigma, and regional differences affect opportunities for passing laws. To predict the likelihood that proposed menstrual product legislation might be adopted in other locations, historical factors related to attitudes about menstruation, including stigma, must be considered and understood to effect lasting change