Step forward in ending period poverty – now fight all austerity
By Lynda McEwan
In a first of its kind globally, The Period Products (Free Provision) Scotland Act was enshrined into law in Scotland on Tuesday last week, laying, politicians say, the foundations for eradicating period poverty for Scottish women.
Following a four year campaign by Labour MSP Monica Lennon backed by trade unions, student unions and women’s campaigns, the law will place a legal duty on local authorities to make period products available to all.
With 1 in 4 school, college and university girls, women and trans people stating they have struggled to access period products, and 10% saying they’ve been unable to afford them pre-covid, the pandemic has massively increased this problem as colleges and universities moved to online teaching and many women, particularly low paid working-class women, lost their jobs, face eviction and grassroots organisations struggle to provide an effective service.
Women spend, on average, £13 a month on period products, running into thousands over their lifetime. The alleviation of this gendered burden will have a significant impact not only financially but psychically and mentally as well.
Importantly, the act will include education to end the stigma surrounding menstruation which has encouragingly opened up discussion about menopause, endometriosis and product sustainability.
The cost of this scheme is estimated to be around £8.7 million a year, although the Scottish government estimated it would be substantially higher at around £24 million during the first hearing of the bill in Hollyrood in February.
Initially opposed to the scheme, the SNP government were ridiculed for suggesting “cross border tampon raids” would follow any implementation of the law. They were finally forced into a u-turn as the campaign gathered more support.
SNP and Scottish Labour’s refusal to fight Tory cuts, despite standing on an anti-austerity platform, has seen brutal cuts to council budgets across Scotland with severe and detrimental affects for women and girls.
A quarter of a million Scottish children live in poverty. This concession has to be seen in a context of how much they’ve cut women’s vital services to the bone, including social work services in my deprived area, West Dunbartonshire.
This victory should be recognised but all of the social problems of inequality still exist so we should fight on.
This law should now be built upon and pushed to be implemented across the rest of Britain. A mass campaign could force the weak and divided Tory government to follow the success in Scotland ending period poverty for all.
SNP and Labour must defy the Tory cuts and set no cuts budgets, fully funding services for all. That’s the platform the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition will be standing on in the Scottish election in May 2021.
