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We want to talk about all things periods and how they affect our daily lives as chemists at Oxford. We would love to here your views and opinions:
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Periodically, the podcast that covers all things periods and chemistry!
Each week, over this series of six episodes, we here at the University of Oxford will be taking a deep-dive into just how periods have affected us in tutorials, exams, labs and just generally studying at undergrad. We want to talk about how periods can sometimes just get in the bloody way!
Periodically is funded by the Royal Society of Chemistry Equality and Diversity fund.
Elba
Periodically, the podcast that covers all things periods in chemistry. How did the two overlap? Well, here at the University of Oxford, we've been looking into just that. How does having periods have an impact on studying an undergraduate chemistry degree? Over this series of six episodes, we'll be taking a deep dive into just how periods have affected us in tutorials, exams, labs, and just generally studying at undergrad. We want to talk about how periods can sometimes just get in the bloody way. We'd like to give a huge thanks to the RSC Equality and Diversity Fund for supporting this podcast. Your hosts today are...
Charlie
Hi I'm Charlie, I'm a postgraduate student at the University of Oxford studying chemistry.
Elba
Hi I'm Elba and I'm a fourth-year chemistry undergraduate student.
Sofia
Hi I'm Sofia and I'm a third-year chemistry undergraduate student at Oxford. Today we're going to be discussing issues around accessibility and period products. A study by Plan International UK in 2018 found that 42% of girls use makeshift period products from socks, toilet papers, and newspaper because they could not afford period products. This was supported by a YouGov survey in 2022, which found that one in eight adults with periods say they are likely to be unable to afford period products within the next 12 months. Our students were very aware that money is tight and period products are just another thing that we have to worry about. Having period products freely available within the department helps to reduce the socio-economic impact of periods for students as well as reducing the stigma and any embarrassment felt by students. With such an intense workload that we have in the chemistry degree and a large number of contact hours, it's sometimes hard to make the time to acquire period products when you need them, and it is just another thing that we might have to stress about. But having free access to them around the department can allow students to make learning their priority. Is it not in everyone's best interest to have a community where all the students feel welcome and are able to perform to the best of their ability without unnecessary stresses?
Elba
So, let's get started. In 2021, the Scottish Period Products Act placed an obligation on local authorities and education providers to make period products obtainable free of charge to anyone who needs them. This was really encouraging to see by the Scottish Parliament, where the access to period products has become almost a right for those in education. This was really well received and feedback on the policy introduction recorded by Young-Scott's Observatory in 2019 showed that 88.7% of students were less worried about having their period and 64% said they were more able to continue with their day-to-day activities.
Charlie
This has kind of been followed up by the British government with a recent incentive to make sure schools and colleges provide access to period products. In the policy it states that period products such as pads and tampons should be available for all who need them when they need them in order to access education. Having periods should not be a barrier to education for anyone. This clearly shows that in order for education to be effective as possible, the worries about periods and period products need to be minimised. This fits in well with a recent survey by the Environmental Association for Universities and Colleges which found that 68% of students felt they were less able to pay attention in class while menstruating.
Elba
Following from this, it's really positive to see that the Chemistry Department here at Oxford have implemented free period products in female bathrooms across their sites. This was mainly driven by the work of Sofia, who's a founder of the Oxford Period Campaign and who's here with us today. So Sofia, you were instrumental in getting access to period products in both Worcester, your college, and across the Chemistry Department. So firstly, thank you so much and also, how has seeing them in place made you feel?
Sofia
Thank you. Yeah, it's made me feel really happy. So they've been in place since the start of this academic year, so that's October 2022. And I'm just really pleased to see that the department listened and acted on this because I think it's really important and really necessary to have free period products.
Elba
It's really amazing to see that the department listened to you and implemented this scheme, but I'm sure that it wasn't easy to get to this point. Could you tell us a little bit more about the challenges in getting this scheme implemented?
Sofia
Yeah, so for me, this started with labs. So before this, the old setup was in the teaching labs, there was this vending machine that you could put a pound coin in to get like two tampons or three pads. And I just thought this was really inaccessible. I actually found the whole setup really infuriating because ideally you'd want the products to be free. And also it just, no one really carries pound coins anymore or cash in general ever since COVID. And I found it really frustrating, especially because there's a snacks vending machines in the labs that accepts card payments, including contactless, so it just kind of felt like they weren't prioritizing stuff like period product access at all. So you know, I thought someone should do something about it and I had a lot of knowledge and experience about the whole thing from successfully lobbying my college Worcester for free period products. So I just started sending emails about it and I brought it up at the Chemists Joint Consultative Committee, which are these twice-termly meetings that the department has and you know, initially staff seemed quite in favour of it, but then it just took a really long time to actually get anything done. six months later there was still no change and just every time I went to the labs I saw that vending machine and it just really made me more and more angry so I just brought it up again and that time it kind of seemed to work because after the summer, success, we had free period products.
Elba
I mean clearly it wasn't very straightforward to get the department to establish this scheme so were there any particular concerns that they had in terms of the scheme? Something that they brought up to you?
Sofia
Yeah so they had some concerns about students hoarding products because basically they were thinking if they put out an open supply of free period products, people are just going to take them and then the supply will be gone. I have a lot of thoughts about this. I understand that obviously, they don't want to just pay for a supply and have it disappear immediately. But I also think it's not very fair to put that on the students and to sort of blame students for taking what they need. Because I think if people are indeed hoarding products, you know, it's sort of a symptom of a wider issue of period poverty and I think the solution is not to restrict access further, but instead to make sure that you have you create a reliable supply that people know won't run out, you know and I just, I also think, you know, periods are natural, they're normal. You shouldn't demonise people for just taking what they need, you know, and maybe if they have a demand that's bigger than expected, that's just the way it is.
Elba
Yes, I agree. Period products should be there for everyone for whenever you need them, not a point of just poverty or of just, if you definitely can't afford them, they're there to be a resource that everyone can use to make everyone more comfortable and make the experience better.
Sofia
I think especially in the lab setting, because with the lab sessions that we have at Oxford, we have sort of six-hour sessions and you don't have a lot of breaks, so you wouldn't normally have the time to go back home or go to the shops and buy products if you didn't have any on you. So if you get your period, you really do need to have sort of that safe access to products if you need them.
Elba
Yes, why make something more stressful than it needs to be when we're already stressing about exams and labs and everything else so much.
Charlie
Yes, exactly. So it's kind of nice to see that the department is doing something and it's one of the few departments in the university that is actually giving out free period products. Even if sometimes they have a caveat of please only take these supplies if you're in period poverty, I think it's quite good to see that they're at least interested and also that they have listened to students like Sofia who's come up with incentives and have then in place and took action, which is I think really encouraging to see. However, as we're saying, it could be improved a little bit and I think one of the main things that we were looking at going forward is that this is great already, but how do we improve it? And I think sustainability is one thing that those chemists are always thinking about. We get taught about sustainability in our lab courses. It's something that especially postgraduate people when they're doing their labs every day, think about because you have to factor into experiments. And it's something that the department and the community on the whole wants to push for. We have things in the department already that look at sustainability and it's kind of one of these measures of success. So I think that that could also play into creating a more sustainable period product scheme. So I was just wondering, Sofia, what do you think the department could maybe do to create a more sustainable period product scheme?
Sofia
So I think as far as I'm aware, the products that this, the scheme that they've currently got uses products which are more like disposable conventional disposable products like pads and tampons, which are usually made using lots of plastic or harmful substances like bleach or fragrances. And these usually generate a lot of pollution and they take a long time to biodegrade. So I know there's existing sort of sustainable alternatives like pads and tampons that are made out of organic cotton or bamboo fibres. So these are natural and so they are biodegradable. And they're also just healthier for users as well. So I think that's definitely something that the department can look into. I think a lot of companies that make these products also have dedicated workplace schemes that workplaces can sign up to be stopped by these companies.
Charlie
So yeah, that, that sounds really good. I think the point about the, these companies already have these programs in place. It means that hopefully the department could subscribe to one of these and then that would mean that we have period products coming in and it's already ordered in every week. So even if there are people that need more and there are more period products being taken and that's fine because the department can deal with it and again, hopefully they could be in touch with some more sustainable brands and that would help them on their department outlook but also on how the department wants to kind of progress into the future.
Elba
Just to move on to a slightly different topic within accessibility, I think it's very important that we talk about the language around periods and period products. Part of the aim is to move away from the stigma related to periods and using words such as sanitary can make it feel like it's something unhygienic, which it isn't. We should be using more words like pads or period supplies or menstrual supplies. The term feminine hygiene could also be moved away from periods are not necessarily a marker of femininity. Periods are something experienced by people who also don't identify as women. So using inclusive vocabulary is really important when creating university schemes and trying to improve the experience of menstruators within our community. Using phrases such as "people who menstruate" could be a good way to make this more inclusive. And also on this note, the department could improve the period product scheme further by adding products to all bathrooms so that products are provided to all who need them without having to ask any questions.
Charlie
I think this is a really good point that we've kind of talked about a lot in our focus group is that making sure that we're using the right language and it's totally understandable at the start not to maybe think about everyone but trying to use more inclusive language knowing that it's not just women because they're normally who we first think of who have periods but there's lots of different people in different situations that have periods so being inclusive is really important and also again like with the department this is something that I think that they could definitely improve on just having some period supplies in every toilet be that male, male, female, disabled, I think that's something that we could really push for and something that wouldn't be very hard to implement if we say they have these schemes where they're already ordering in book supplies.
Elba
I think it's as you say, the inclusive vocabulary is very important but also we understand it's not necessarily an easy change for people to make, it's about making that effort to try and everybody part of the community move towards a better system. Overall, we're all very pleased with the Chemistry Department's initiative of providing free period products, but there are clearly some areas that we think could be improved on, potentially making the scheme more sustainable and ensuring that the language used around the initiative is inclusive of all menstruators. Free period products should be accessible to everyone, whenever you need them and without any guilt or questions. If you're interested in learning more about lobbying for better access to period products at the University of Oxford, please visit theoxfordperiod.com. Thank you so much for listening, we hope you enjoyed our discussion and hopefully it was relatable for those studying with periods. And for those listening that don't experience periods, we hope you can understand a bit more about the day-to-day issues they can cause. Please feel free to let us know your thoughts and opinions, you can find us on Twitter and Instagram @periodically_ox. Again, we would like to give a huge thanks to the RSC Equality and Diversity Fund for supporting this podcast