Your Company Needs Tampons and Pads. Here's Why.

86% of women have started their periods in public, without adequate menstrual products around. Let me, (and probably every other woman you know) tell you, it doesn't feel great. 62% of those women immediately went to a store to stock up, and 32% went home.

Missing Menstrual Products is a Waste of Time

Lets assume your company has 50% women. It does, of course? Remove the 15% who may not be menstruating at any point, because of medical issues, pregnancy, breastfeeding, or menopause (your presumed company is not only gender equal, but also serious about fighting age bias).

We can add in a few women with unexpected uterine fluids for non-period reasons. Here's a few:

• Early term miscarriage
• Pregnancy bleeding
• Water breaking
• Menopausal bleeding
• Hormonal imbalances
• Stress
• Polyps or fibroids
• Thyroid problems (common after pregnancy)

Does running to the store or heading home seem like a productive use of your office time? 86% of the menstruating women (plus the women who didn't menstruate but did er...leak) at your company have wasted hours of work time dealing with something that could have been dealt with in 30 seconds in office.

"Hey, can you pass me a tampon from the basket over there?"

Female Interviewees Check Your Restroom

34% of those women (who got stuck without) felt panicked. In a preemptive effort to avoid this panic, it's actually something women check when we first walk in. Better safe than sorry, you know?

If your employment conditions are so fantabulously bomb-digitty awesome that women want to work for you anyway, consider the best-of lists. Your company is so cool, it deserves to be invited. You are the cream of the crop. Right? You hire the best talent. Your offer generous maternity leave (and paternity leave) options. You have beer on tap and provide band-aids, showers, and company-swag-of-month.

Apple has been providing a friendly bathroom basket since the '80s and Facebook's got 'em in the mens' room too. You want consistent employer branding? Ahem.

Tampons for Female Employees Don't Cost Much

According to Nancy Kramer, founder and CEO of the 350-person marketing agency Resource, per woman, per year, tampons cost $4.67. I'm going to repeat that, because it's CHEAP. Four dollars and sixty-seven cents. The cost of a caramel macchiato.

Tampons will cost a 350 person company (with 50% menstruating women), $817 for the entire year. Your startup is only 20 people? A grand total of...$46. The average box of pantyliners costs $6, and women go through about 12 boxes per year. You do the math.

Only 16% of menstruators report relying solely on their workplace supply to do it all, which means that 84% are still stocking up their purses, backpacks, and briefcases, saving your bathroom supply for a real pinch. So, subtract 84% from the total you just got.

Did you throw a Christmas party in December? How much was the tree? A company trip to Hawaii? How much were the branded eye-masks?

Your Female Employees Rock

They rock so hard that they shouldn't be seen as "less than" in the workplace. After all, this is your company management we're talking about. I know you've got some brilliant c-suite women up there, who want to be seen as the capable, brilliant, women they are.

Unfortunately, being seen at work with a tampon or pad, spotted spotting, has negative implications for her ability to get in front of a room and well...rock it. She's more likely to be objectified, less likely to be seen as competent, and there's even a marginal tendency to avoid sitting near her. People, some folks still believe in cooties.

Menstruating women have been seen as intellectually and psychologically impaired throughout history. Your female employees don't need that 'tude getting in the way of their presentations, meetings, and day-to-day colleague interactions.

If The CEO Menstruated...

Women hold just 6.6% of CEO positions in Fortune 500 companies. It then begs the question, what if men could menstruate?

Would the $4.67 per year per menstruating employee stop you from supplying tampons? Would people seen with period products be judged as stupid or strong? Would surprise menstruators get stuck macgyvering pads out of toilet paper and hoping they make it through the next meeting?

If your answers are no, it's time to buy some feminine hygiene products for the office.