Richard Hogan: We need to remove the financial burden around periods
Richard Hogan says he never really reflected on the cost of products. 'Because I can afford them. They were just something I bought with the shopping.'
This year, the Badjao community experienced a devastating fire. I have been ruminating for days now on the injustice and inequity of how some people are forced to live. It’s all so random, where one person is born.
Why are my children the fortunate ones who get to go to school, have food and shelter, and enjoy holidays, while other children struggle to survive?
This year, I saw something that really has stayed with me. I was standing out in the dry heat of the early morning sun, planning the day’s activities, when I noticed a young teenage girl. She couldn’t have been more than 13 years of age, rummaging around in a few overflowing bins, looking for something.
I asked one of the girls I have known now for over 16 years what did she think she was looking for. I could tell by her reticence and the embarrassed look on her face that she didn’t want to tell me. So, I asked again: “What is it, Jacky?”
She stopped and looked at me, she attempted to say it, and then stopped and then said: “Paper for her period.”
I have brought up a hot water bottle here and there, gone to the pharmacy to get painkillers, collected her from school, and comforted her in moments when she was embarrassed because she didn’t have a pad with her when her period arrived. But I never really reflected on the cost of products, because I can afford them.
They were just something I bought with the shopping. I’d often joke with my daughter about the present I bought her, trying to take the stigma out of periods so the other girls in the house would be used to the idea of it before it came into their lives.
My daughters would often be laughing as I came in the door, loaded with pads. My eldest daughter would tell me I’m a good girl dad, “well, us girls have to stick together”. They’d all be laughing at me. My youngest informing me, I’m not a girl but a middle-aged man.
I remember my grandmother telling me the story of how her school friend let out a rueful scream one day, coming back from the toilet. She was only 12 years old and ran out of the school and went back home.
The girl thought she was dying because she started to bleed. That was 1924, and nobody had talked to them about their period. There was shame around periods in those days.
Thankfully, that has changed. The shame now is that we force girls to carry the financial burden of a biological function.
Without it, none of us would be here. We have to follow Scotland, and take that burden away from girls. Scotland has already successfully enacted laws making period products universally available. In some states within the US, Viagra (for erectile dysfunction) is classified as a tax-exempt health product, while sanitary products are classified as luxury goods and taxed at the highest rate.
If boys were the ones who menstruated, would things be different? Well, how Viagra and sanitary towels are taxed in parts of America would seem to suggest so. Let’s just say it as it should be, period products should be universally free so a young girl doesn’t have to rummage in bins to find paper to help her not soil her clothes. I can’t believe I have to even write that sentence in 2026.
Surely, the Irish Government could be like Scotland and show our mothers, daughters, sisters, and aunts that we care about them and believe they should not have to shoulder the financial burden along with all the other burdens childbearing brings into their life.
We pay so much tax in this country, wouldn’t it be fair if some of that money went to off-setting the cost of period products for women? I don’t think I’m being idealistic here; I think that would be the sign of a progressive, fair society and one that values girls and women. There are plenty of families living in this country that struggle to make ends meet.
Every month, there is a new set of financial challenges. People living in poverty are the most voiceless in our society.
The image of that young girl, going through a bin to find something to protect her clothes, is a shocking one, but the daily lived experience of so many girls across this globe.
The reality is: There is still a stigma and taboo around periods, which silences girls and women from talking about their lived experience. It’s time we all spoke out about it and took the financial burden away from them.
