Period poverty: A global crisis affecting the world’s poorest women

By Sabrina Velandia

The Numbers

It is estimated that 1.9 billion of women, girls and people around the world menstruate – i.e., nearly a quarter of the world’s population. However, for many of them, getting their period is a monthly burden due to a phenomenon known as period poverty (The Kulczyk Foundation, 2022).

Access to appropriate menstrual products; safe, hygienic spaces in which to use them; and the right to manage their period with dignity, without shame or stigma, is crucial for anyone who menstruates. However, period poverty affects at least 500 million of them all over the world (Choi, 2019).

The?American Medical Women’s Association (2019) define period poverty as “inadequate access to menstrual hygiene tools and education, including but not limited to sanitary products, washing facilities, and waste management”.

Period poverty doesn’t just refer to those who have no access to menstrual products – in some cases,?limited access to these products?leads to serious health risks (Unesco, 2014).

Action Aid UK (2023) alert that, added to the potential health risk, it can also mean girls’ education, well-being, and sometimes their entire lives are affected. Along with period shaming and discrimination, period poverty affects women and girl’s physical and mental well-being.

Indeed, period poverty is closely associated to discrimination as, according to UN Women (2019), menstruating women and girls are seen as “dirty, untouchable, or a disgrace” leading to mistreatment and denial of their basic rights and dignity.

As estimated by UN Women (2019), 12.8% of women and girls worldwide live in poverty. The cost of menstrual products (including added taxes), prevents them from safely manage their periods and forces them to resort to unsuitable and risky options.

Furthermore, 1.25 million women and girls have no access to a safe, private toilet, and 526 million don’t have a toilet at all (Ibid.).

Causes of Period Poverty

Although period poverty is a global problem, people living in low-income countries are disproportionately affected by this issue. Economic crisis is a major reason leading to high rates of period poverty. People who menstruate use, on average, over?9,000 sanitary products?throughout their life, representing a high cost for someone already experiencing poverty (Global Citizen, 2021).

UN Women (2019) affirms that it’s the world’s poorest women and girls that are more impacted by period poverty due to “lack of money to buy pads and tampons, access toilets or discriminatory cultural norms and practices”.

In countries where sanitary products are?largely imported?and there is an immense economic crisis, these products can be highly expensive. There is evidence that this reality forces some teenage girls to resort to transactional sex in order to receive pads, evidencing how period poverty put women and girls at risk of further gendered violence (Women In International Security, 2023).

Social stigma around periods has also played a large role in worsening period poverty. In some communities, women are considered "impure and unclean" while they are menstruating. Girls are not taught what menstruation is or how to prepare for it making them feel “fear, panic, and confusion” during their first menstruation.

Moreover, social stigma means that many girls are?taught to hide their periods and?the purchase and disposal of sanitary products away from boys and men.

Period poverty in Venezuela

In Venezuela, it is estimated that 1 in 4 women do not have access to menstrual products at home, forcing them to use unhygienic and improvised alternatives that can cause infections, as well as make them miss days of school and work (Alianza Con Ellas, 2023).

The Humanitarian Complex Emergency has a differentiated impact on women and girls in Venezuela. In the context of this humanitarian crisis, buying menstrual products has become a luxury. A package of pads to use during an average period of 5 days can cost $1 dollar a month, while the monthly minimum wage is around $5.

Considering that women menstruate around 40 years during their lifetimes, managing periods can represent a long-standing financial burden that has to be assumed every month. For impoverished people, especially those living in a country in crisis, like Venezuela, it implies a huge economic effort. Thus, many women sacrifice the purchase of menstrual products for other essential items such as food.

In a survey conducted by Acción Solidaria (2021), it was determined that 21% of menstruating people had to replace menstrual products with homemade options, such as compresses made of cloths, towels, or toilet paper. In another survey, people affirmed having resorted to inadequate alternatives like newspapers, cardboard, plastic bags, clothes, and socks (Alianza Con Ellas, 2023).

There are serious health risks when people are?forced to use dirty rags or prolonged use of the same tampons or pads, due to limited access of products and water, as this can cause infection. The pressure to keep menstruation a secret may lead people to dry the rags in hidden and dark corner. Not being dried properly?further increases?the likelihood of infection (Das, 2015).

Period poverty also affect school attendance and performance due to the fear of stigma and limited access to clean, safe and private bathrooms, and access to menstrual products and water.

The impact of period poverty on education may also manifest in girls often missing one or more days when they are on their periods, meaning they are more likely to be forced into child marriage, abuse, and sexual exploitation (Action Aid, 2003).

According to Acción Solidaria’s survey (2021), 22% of the surveyed women stated that they had missed school or work due to menstruation.

Period poverty also affects employment and livelihood, as many workplaces have poor conditions, and unsupportive labour laws and policies perpetuating stigma. This compromises their capacity to being independent, developing their full potential and accessing a better income deepening, as well, the gender gap.

In some communities, women and girls who menstruate may even face social sanctions like being excluded from some physical spaces, forced into solitary confinement, forbidden or required to bathe, and banned from cooking or touching food or books.

In the stated survey, 45% of the people surveyed associated menstruation with negative words such as “disgusting, terrible, expensive, depressive, and painful”. Some men even refused to answer the questions arguing these were “women's issues”.

As stated by Accion Solidaria (2023), “when a woman does not have access to adequate products to manage her menstruation, she is essentially being discriminated against for being a woman”. Thus, it is crucial to address these issues, using gender perspectives, to create adequate plans, strategies and public policies offering dignified responses to the needs of women in Venezuela.