Periods on the Table: Taking stock of the menstrual equity movement in Canada

In Canada, it seems that “period” is no longer a dirty word. Since the Canadian Menstruators pushed to remove the federal tax on menstrual supplies in 2015, Canadian period politics have expanded to include a new wave of activists invested in championing menstrual equity. Pressure from advocates has led to initiatives across communities and all levels of government – municipal, provincial, territorial, and federal. While product-based solutions have been a key feature of recent politics and advocacy, most advocates are pushing for deeper forms of systemic and structural change.

The Canadian menstrual equity movement has similarities to movements in other parts of the Global Minority; early action to bring menstrual politics to the fore has been led by community and grassroots initiatives that formed into organized efforts to push for formal programming, policy, and legislative change. However, there are also unique things about the Canadian context. As a settler-colonial society, and one of the most culturally diverse nations in the world, addressing systemic racism and decolonization are front of mind in many social justice spaces, including the menstrual equity movement. Activists have successfully leveraged a political climate that is comparatively favorable to gender equity and intersectional justice.

However, in reflecting on the rapid progress made, there have been ongoing struggles and even significant losses in related movements. Abortion is not always easily accessed, especially in rural and remote regions of the country, and private member bills (those bills introduced in the Canadian House of Commons by a member of parliament) seek to undermine access even further; gender-affirming care is increasingly under threat, including in ways that threaten bodily autonomy for all; and, there are ongoing efforts to eliminate school-based sex education. Amidst the growing enthusiasm and seeming wins for people who menstruate, it is time to take stock of the movement in Canada. If periods are on the table, how, at what cost, and to what end?

As with most feminist undertakings, this political query is deeply personal. We share our perspectives as researchers and activists in the Canadian menstrual equity space. A.J. is a trans health researcher, whose work addresses all facets of trans people’s reproductive and sexual lives and health, including menstruation. From 2022-2024, they served as a member of BC’s Period Poverty Task Force. Lisa is a menstruator and sociologist who researches the social and political aspects of menstruation. She is a member of the Period Promise Community Action Group, serves on the board of Free Periods Canada, and led a research project to examine the state of menstrual equity in the Canadian context funded by Women and Gender Equality Canada.

Please sir, can I have some more…

In Canada, the speed with which the “tampon tax” was removed in 2015 is remarkable, especially given that the change was made under a Conservative government not typically perceived as favorable to advancing gender equity. According to those behind the campaign, a key element to this success was narrowing the issue to a problem with a simple solution that the public and government could get behind. Tax savings are palatable to a wider range of people and side-step the messiness of confronting menstruation injustices and structural forms of oppression and violence.^[1]

Bobel & Fahs have highlighted a troubling trend in new waves of menstruation politics, where systemic inequities are tidied up and confined to problems that can be easily solved with a pad or tampon.^[2] If people need products to manage their bleeding, strategies are put in place to provide free, single-use, disposable products, period. Of course, a photo opportunity ensues and is prominently featured in news articles; somewhere, someone checks the box marked “eradicate period poverty.” Too often, political wins are achieved by narrowing the policy-ask to one that can be solved by “generous” capitalist enterprise.

In Canada, ending period poverty has become a dominant framework for building momentum and support, with a focus on the distribution of disposable menstrual supplies. In almost identical programs and with the aim to address period poverty, the Governments of Manitoba (2022) and Ontario (2021) announced 3-year pilot projects to distribute menstrual supplies in the public school system. The programs were heavily criticized for how they left many groups out, such as students living on First Nations reserves, and further, for how they relied on partnerships with Shoppers Drug Mart for distribution. The message from advocates was clear – “we want more than just pads!” Further, “who is fixing the problem matters!”

Product-focused efforts celebrate corporate sponsorships and charitable donations; further, they perpetuate consumerism without attention to environmental impact or cultural sensitivity. We, along with other advocates and activists, have seen how easily the discourse is shifting away from addressing poverty as the underlying cause of period poverty.^[3] Poor people are provided with menstrual products and otherwise left in poverty.

In addition, as period politics have grown, menstruation has been sanitized and stripped of its intrinsic connections to other more purportedly “controversial” topics. These sanitizing strategies have ushered menstrual equity and period poverty eradication efforts into the mainstream – but they are not without their costs. When menstrual equity is positioned as part of reproductive justice, it risks inheriting the legacy of well-funded and vocal opposition to abortion. Whereas abortion-related gatherings are characterized by their reliance on security protocols due to the risk of violence that might befall attendees, these authors have participated in various menstruation-related events that feel almost celebratory with seemingly little regard for attendee safety. And yet, when stating that trans people exist and gender-inclusive language is needed in both abortion and menstruation-related spaces, we, A.J. and Lisa, have both received all manner of transphobic and vitriolic hate mail. Anti-trans sentiment prevails in both areas, and efforts to address trans erasure in one domain could borrow from strategies undertaken in another – and yet, this opportunity for solidarity and collaboration is lost when we pretend that menstruation happens over here, and abortion, over there.

In another example, paying attention to the ways that menstruation leads to vulnerabilities and risks of intimate partner violence or sexual violence against sex workers can address the societal oppressions that contribute to these forms of violence. If activism and advocacy are only focused on educational sites and menstrual education is included as a component of sex education, it risks being politicized and limited alongside school-based sexual health educational efforts. Fulsome understandings of menstruation ought to be accompanied by discussions of fertility, pregnancy, and safer sex practices, as opposed to being taught separately.

Bathrooms remain sites of violence for unhoused, trans, queer, and/or disabled people, even if they stock menstrual products. Advocacy around the distribution of menstrual products in prisons ought to be accompanied with prison abolition efforts, for example. As Moss and Vishniac have eloquently argued elsewhere, the carceral system is “inherently anti-menstrual equity, and creates an environment in which it is impossible to have a dignifying menstrual cycle experience.” Moreover, “the prison system is functionally opposed to bodily sovereignty and thus, health cannot be achieved, even if material (e.g., pads and tampons) is obtained.”^[4] Providing someone with free period products will not heal their untreated endometriosis, nor will it fill the profound gaps in knowledge about peri/menopause. This is not to villainize individual activists or organizations who participate in this sanitizing, as it is an effective political strategy for getting menstruation on the table. However, by focusing on a narrow definition of period poverty where the problem and its solution are reduced to a matter of product availability, menstrual equity is separated from interconnected issues. In this way, addressing period poverty becomes a non-partisan issue, with a relatively simple, logical fix – free pads and tampons. We can do better.

Yes, and…

The momentum in Canada around menstruation politics is promising, even if there are several cases where programs and initiatives leave much to be desired. We take heart in the fact that we work with and alongside many individuals and organizations engaged in thoughtful intersectional and decolonial work; further, that those within the movement (including ourselves) have evolved over time and as capacity grows. Free Periods Canada, a grassroots, BIPOC, and youth-led not-for-profit organization began with a product distribution focus but has since expanded its platform to include research, education, and more recently, connection-building across sectors, such as sexual violence prevention and crisis response. Moon Time Connections (formerly Moon Time Sisters) is the only Indigenous-led menstrual equity organization in Canada and also began with a product distribution program focused on reaching Indigenous menstruators in rural and remote areas. More recently, the organization has been able to scale up its work and add education and research to its mandate. Very recently, the British Columbia Period Poverty Task Force released a final report after 18 months of careful engagement and deliberation, engaging community groups and experts. The report includes an impressive list of recommendations that provide a clear pathway to move beyond the distribution of pads and tampons as “the solution.” Implementing these changes will require continued pressure to ensure that the deep work required to achieve menstruation justice is realized.

On the precipice of what is next, we close by sharing questions that we have been considering.

1. How is menstruation being politicized and to what end?
2. Whose voices are privileged in the movement and who is being left out?
3. What does it mean to incorporate intersectionality into menstrual equity movements – including in ways that resist white saviorism and poverty porn, both at home and in our efforts abroad?
4. Are there opportunities to work collaboratively and in coalition with one another?
5. How can menstruation justice be centralized within the movement?

Featured image caption: Courtesy Nataliya Vaitkevich on Pexels.

A.J. Lowik

Dr. A.J. Lowik is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Lethbridge, Alberta, having recently completed their postdoctoral fellowship with the Centre for Gender and Sexual Health Equity at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver. Dr. Lowik's research and activism focuses on trans people's reproductive lives and health, and they have published articles on the topics of menstruation, abortion, lactation, perinatal care, and fertility. From 2022-2024, Dr. Lowik served as a member of the B.C. Period Poverty Task Force, charged with making recommendations for how period poverty can be eliminated, and menstrual equity advanced, in the province of British Columbia.

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Lisa Smith

Dr. Lisa Smith is a member of the Department of Sociology and Coordinator of the Menstrual Cycle Research Group at Douglas College. Her research interests include the social and political aspects of menstruation, gender-based violence and post-secondary campuses, and intersectional feminism and technology. She is particularly interested in research approaches that are community-engaged, creative and informed by an applied sociology lens. She is an active member of the menstrual equity activist community in Canada and internationally and serves on several community action groups and societies related to menstruation.

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