In the wake of Roe‘s overturn, among the urgent unmet needs are ensuring that people’s private health information is vigorously safeguarded. This includes period-tracking apps, used by millions of women to help chart and better understand their reproductive cycle.
Tag: Menstrual Equity
Now More Than Ever, It’s Time for Universal Menstrual Education for Gender Equality
Ninety-two percent of high school students reported needing a new pad or tampon during school. Yet, period poverty, a lack of access to menstrual products due to economic circumstances, impacts students’ ability to safely address menstruation.
“Some girls find out about their periods when they actually get them. It’s just never talked about in schooling.”
Our Refugee Crisis Response Must Prioritize Menstrual Health
Nearly all the Ukrainians fleeing their war-torn country are women and children, a regional tragedy that mirrors a global truth: Refugee crises are women’s crises. And as women’s crises, they demand responses informed by gender-specific needs — including crucial attention to menstrual health and hygiene management.
Will My Period Tracking App Betray Me? Menstrual Surveillance in a Post-Roe World
Menstrual data and period tracking has already become a lucrative industry for apps. Selling private and personal reproductive health data to companies has created income many fertility apps.
The availability of this data already poses a unique threat to the lives of all people with uteruses, but in a world without Roe the risk of this data becoming a weapon for the anti-abortion movement. They have been known to use such data to influence decision making and reproductive choices. In order to keep this vital data out of their hands action needs to be taken to provide protection and safe alternatives for menstruators.
Women’s Rights and Democracy Are Inextricably Linked
Last fall, America was featured for the first time on a list of backsliding democracies. With inadequate progress in women’s participation in government, reproductive rights, and maternal mortality, this title may reflect recent attacks on gender equality. America’s longstanding and abysmal record on myriad gender equity markers has been the true harbinger for our downgraded democracy status.
The Period Project: Menstrual Equity in Schools
In the last of our three-part series on menstrual equity, highlighting our Period Project research study and forthcoming Period Project Report Cards, we report on schooling and access to menstrual products.
Within the last five years, over a dozen states passed laws to require that menstrual products be made available free of charge in at least some schools—up from zero. State laws requiring access to menstrual products free of charge represent a crucial component of ending period poverty and achieving menstrual equity.
The Period Project: The Fight for Menstrual Equity in Prisons
Although only 5 percent of the world’s female population lived in the United States, it accounts for nearly 30 percent of the world’s incarcerated women. Inadequate and inaccessible menstrual products remain a pervasive issue in the U.S. carceral system. Our research shows few states have taken action to address the issue and enforcement lags behind laws that mandate access to menstrual supplies.
(This is the second article in a three-part series on the Period Project, which examines the scope and consequences of period poverty and assesses state progress toward achieving menstrual equity through legislation.)
The Period Project: Period Poverty and the Fight for Menstrual Equity
Access to affordable menstrual products remains a persistent issue. That’s why we’re launching the Period Project—which uses original research to develop “Period Project Report Cards,” assigning each state and the District of Columbia a grade on an A–F scale to evaluate their progress toward menstrual equity.
(This article is the first in a three-part series introducing the Period Project, which examines the scope and consequences of period poverty and assesses state progress toward achieving menstrual equity through legislation.)
U.S. Backslide on Abortion Rights Is a Grave Danger to Democracy, Say Both Reproductive Rights Experts and Legal Analysts
Saturday, Jan. 22, marked Roe v. Wade’s 49th anniversary—and it very well may be its last.
On Friday, Jan. 21, experts on democracy and elections from the Brennan Center and Ms. discussed the implications of the Texas abortion law S.B. 8 and the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that directly challenges the precedent of Roe.
Sponsored by Ms. and the Gender and Policy Center at George Mason University’s Schar School, the rousing discussion set the stage for how the U.S. got to this point, and outlined where we go from here.
Keeping Score: NYC’s First Women-Majority Council Takes Office; Only 55% of Non-Parents Want Kids Someday; D.C. Students Get Free Period Products
This week: Nebraskans face one of the most restrictive abortion bans in the nation; New York City’s first women-majority city council takes office; Ahmaud Arbery’s murderers sentenced to life in prison; D.C. Council approved free menstrual products in all schools; the gender gap in higher education widens; and more.