Nature’s Little Red Tax: The Economics of Menstrual Product Accessibility

Written by Anele Letebogo Dube

Edited by Firdavs Mirzoev

You go to the bathroom, look down at your underwear, and there it is: red. Your period has arrived. You go searching in your bag for a pad or tampon or call out to ask if your friend has one to spare. For many girls this is an inconvenience at most, but for other girls, they don’t have the luxury of doing that. They have to roll up some tissue and hope it lasts.

This is the reality of period poverty. Period poverty is when one cannot afford or access safe menstrual products, proper sanitation, and washing facilities. Around the world many women and girls experience this. Around 500 million people experience period poverty. In Sub-Saharan Africa, UNESCO estimates 1 in 10 girls miss school due to inaccessibility to menstrual products. In Southern Africa, reports suggest approximately 7 million schoolgirls cannot afford sanitary products. 

For something that happens naturally to roughly half the world’s population, why are menstrual products treated as a luxury? 

The most common way this is brushed off when speaking about period poverty is “Isn’t it just a few dollars for a box? How hard can it be?” 

This argument misunderstands how poverty works. Period poverty isn’t about being able to buy one box of pads at the moment. It is about the financial burden of necessity. Periods happen monthly for about 35 to 45 years, which turns a few dollars into thousands. Additionally, menstrual flows are not identical for everyone, meaning heavy flows require higher quantities. In economically marginalised groups, five dollars is more often than not the difference between putting food on the table or buying a box of pads or tampons. 

How a country handles period products shows how much it cares about the citizenship of women and youth. In 2021, Scotland set a global standard by making all period products free for anyone who needs them. Kenya took early action by becoming the first country to abolish sales tax and value-added tax (VAT) on period products in 2004. However, many countries still face structural neglect. Many states in the United States still categorise period products as non-essential or luxury goods. In rural parts of nations like Nepal, cultural stigma worsens the lack of resources, where traditional practices isolate menstruating girls in huts, they are separated from family and social activities, under the belief that bleeding renders them impure. 

For women and girls in different parts of the world, period poverty isn’t an abstract concept, it is a barrier. Imagine sitting in class and realising you’re bleeding through your clothes, but you’re too scared to raise your hand because of the stigma around the menstrual cycle. Imagine having to beg for a single pad at the nurse’s office or deciding it’s better to stay at home instead. Skipping just 6 days of a school month means missing a fifth of an academic school year. When the youth is denied access to basic necessities, their education suffers. 

Governments and schools argue from a very individualistic point, asking why they should pay for personal biological expenses, but this argument doesn’t make sense under a simple review, society already funds physiological needs. Public restrooms in schools, offices, and parks are stocked with tissue paper, soap, and paper towels because we recognise that basic sanitation is needed. Tampons and pads serve the same exact hygiene purpose. Expecting one half of the world’s population to pay a lifelong tax while the other half walks free creates an inherent structural inequality. 

A period should never be the reason a girl misses school, stays at home, is seen as impure, or has to choose between menstrual products and something else she needs, although for millions, it is.

We cannot call something a necessity while making access to it a privilege. Pads and tampons are not luxuries. Periods are not optional. So why is menstrual dignity?