U of W students invest in free menstrual products

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This article was published 11/12/2023 (677 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The University of Winnipeg is the latest campus in the province to make pads and tampons free of charge to students, staff and visitors.

“Menstrual safety is very important. People who bleed often have emergencies. We’ve all had cases where we could not find any pad and then you just have to go home — and I think that’s a barrier (to education),” said Tomiris Kaliyeva, president of the students association.

Kaliyeva and her colleagues on the 2023-24 executive team made it their mission to find a way to stock washrooms across the university with basic hygiene supplies when they began their terms in May.

She and Christine Quiah, vice-president of student affairs, said they bonded over their lived experience with running out of menstruation products and frustrations that condoms were widely available on campus while tampons were not.

Following six months of meetings and price-matching, UWSA celebrated the launch of Free Flow — a year-long pilot with the tag-line: “Free menstrual products because we don’t have a choice to bleed.”

A total of $15,000 has been earmarked for the first year of the project. The students association is the main funder. The U of W facilities management office and department of women’s and gender studies are also contributors.

“It was hard to convince people that it’s actually worth the investment,” Kaliyeva said, adding she repeatedly argued the pilot would ensure students who menstruate miss fewer classes and bolster academic success.

Manitoba schools have long stocked limited hygiene supplies to address period poverty, but they have come under growing pressure to expand such efforts in recent years.

Last year, the provincial government struck a three-year deal with Shoppers Drug Mart to supply public and independent kindergarten-to-Grade 12 schools with pads and tampons.

The University of Manitoba began stocking bathrooms with hygiene products in early 2023.

Discussions to expand access to menstrual products at Brandon University and Red River College Polytechnic are underway.

U of W’s project involved the purchase of eight dispensers that have been installed in high-traffic bathrooms.

These sites will continue to be maintained with Aunt Flow brand pads and tampons, with 50 of each environmentally-friendly product available when full, until at least October 2024. Students can continue to request menstrual cups at the UWSA office.

Between the popularity of the new items — which have had to be restocked twice weekly since the mid-autumn launch — and positive feedback from community members, student leaders are optimistic their successors will see value in expanding the project in 2024-25.

Quiah said the initiative is particularly timely given the surging cost of living has impacted all student expenses and worsened the impact of the so-called “pink tax” — the phenomena of discriminatory pricing on products marketed towards women.

She said she hopes the rollout will apply pressure on governments and encourage other organizations to stock their washrooms with a wider selection of free supplies.

As far as Sharanpal Ruprai is concerned, it’s “ridiculous” these initiatives are still up for debate and it’s taken so long for period products to be made widely available at no charge.

“It is a human rights issue,” said the head of U of W’s department of women’s and gender studies.

Change is finally happening because more women are sitting around decision-making tables and there’s a growing movement to talk about women’s health, Ruprai said.

The associate professor noted there are numerous reasons why someone might need a product in an emergency, including but not limited to miscarriages and sexual assaults on campus.

maggie.macintosh@freepress.mb.ca