Compass Gender: Scotland Makes Period Products Free

A bill passed in Scotland will guarantee free access to period products (Wikimedia Commons).

Scotland made history by becoming the first country to ensure by law free access to menstrual products. The Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Bill, passed unanimously by the Scottish Parliament on November 24, requires local authorities to ensure that period products are provided free of charge.

Under the bill, the government must also set up a universal system so that anyone in need can readily access period products for free. 

This isn’t Scotland’s first action easing access to menstrual products. In 2018, the government introduced a program providing free sanitary products to students at schools, colleges, and universities across Scotland with a $5.2 million fund. The new bill’s financial memorandum estimates that the project will cost around £8.7 million in 2022/23.

Scottish MP Monica Lennon, who proposed the bill in 2017, has fought to end period poverty, which refers to a lack of access to “sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, hand washing facilities, and, or, waste management” according to Global Citizen, an international education and advocacy organization aiming to end extreme poverty.

In a document published in 2017, Lennon described the realities of period poverty amongst people who needed period products around the world. “Despite the fact that a pack of sanitary pads can be found in most supermarkets for a couple of pounds and might not seem like a huge expense—when you have no or very little income, it can be insurmountable,” she wrote. 

Period poverty remains a pressing issue not just in Scotland but all over the world. Plan International, a humanitarian organization resolving to advance children’s rights, found that ten percent of girls in the UK could not afford sanitary products. In a step to combat period poverty, the five percent “tampon tax” on sanitary products will be abolished in the UK by January 2021. In a landmark vote in 2019, Germany reduced the tax rate on menstrual products from 17 percent, the rate for “luxury goods” to seven percent.  In the United States, several states have outlawed sales taxes on period products entirely, though others have yet to follow suit. 

In 2004, Kenya became the first country to slash its tampon tax. India, a country in which four out of five women lack access to menstrual products, removed its tampon tax as well in July 2018 after long campaigns by womens’ rights activists. Canada and Australia also abolished the sales taxes on menstrual products in 2015 and 2018 respectively. Sanitary pads have also been declared tax free in South Africa in 2019, and free pads are distributed in public schools. 

Period poverty is a major reason as to why girls miss school. A report released by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) estimates that one in ten girls in Sub-Saharan Africa misses school during their period due to a lack of access to period products. A study conducted by Harris Insights & Analytics found that one in five teenage girls in the U.S. would rather miss class than go to school if they lack menstrual products. 

Scotland’s Communities Secretary Aileen Campbell commented on how revolutionary the bill is both nationally and globally: “Scotland is leading the world in improving period dignity and I am determined to continue that work in a way that will improve the lives of people across Scotland.”