Why does menstruation matter to my business?
- By Chloe Tingle
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- 01 Jun, 2016
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Periods. Not a word often used in the workplace but should your employees be suffering in silence? We explore how menstruation can effect the motivation of your staff in the workplace.
But as an employer are you holding back your staff by not talking about their period?
Menstruation is still a taboo topic, how would an employee be treated in your workplace if they were to bring up menstruation in a meeting? What would happen if someone responded and said "Oh that's why you're always moody then". What do you do if an employee is taking sick days at the same time every month? Do you mention something?
Women equality is an important part of our culture, equal pay equal rights that's what we are striving towards but how do you incorporate equal time off and equal motivation when someone is menstruating each month compared to someone who is not.
Period pain was recently compared to the equivalent of having a small heart attack.
I was recently told a story by a student who was told she could not leave a tampon on her desk during an exam and was later reprimanded for going in her bag to fetch one. What happens if someone brings out a tampon in your office? Do you have a sink in your bathrooms to help women on their period so they don't embarassingly have to wash blood off their hands in front of everyone?
We're a small not-for-profit organisation working on breaking down period taboos. Our main focus of work is helping homeless women in Bristol and those living in poverty overseas to manage their period. As part of our crowdfunder campaign we are looking for businesses to work with us around the issue of menstruation in the workplace. For £700, we can offer an educational workshop and team building half day for your staff to ensure they feel comfortable enough to discuss menstruation and gender equality in the workplace. We will also support you to develop policy which enables you to provide an inclusive and understanding workplace for all employees, those who menstruate and those who don’t.
We're also looking for business sponsors to help get our first charitable projects off the ground both in Bristol and Nepal. This includes regular updates on where your corporate sponsorship money is being spent and what impact in both the local community and beyond it is having.
Check out our crowdfunderwww.crowdfunder.co.uk/nomoretaboo to find out more or email chloe@nomoretaboo.org
WOW Women of the World festivals have been popping up across the world, if you get the chance to go along to one we would strongly recommend it.
WOW – Women of the World festival celebrates women and girls, and looks at the obstacles that stop them from achieving their potential.
Around the world, individuals and communities are insisting on the simple proposition that women and girls must have equal rights and asking the question: why is gender equality taking so long?
Southbank Centre's WOW – Women of the World festival is a global network of festivals which provides a platform for celebrating what has been achieved, and exploring all the ways we can change the world for the better.
What’s not to love?
Our Founder, Chloe, and her Mum Angela went along to represent No More Taboo with a stall across the two days. Here’s her highlights:
“Although we didn’t get much time to take in all the discussions as we were kept busy wo-manning the stall (thanks Mum for helping out)! We had some great discussions around gender, equality, inclusivity and of course periods with new customers, supporters, other panellists and some old friends who came to see us.
In fact, we were really pleased to catch up with Plan International UK who were opening the festival with a discussion about Period Activism exactly one year on since the launch of our #BreaktheBarriers research and Period Poverty Conference that we ran in collaboration with Plan.
On the first weekend of September, No More Taboo set up shop at Lush Cribbs Causeway for their Charity Pot weekend.
The Lush Charity Pot is a wonderfully creamy shea-butter hand lotion where all the sales money (excluding VAT) goes towards a chosen charity or non-for-profit. This scheme is designed to help boost grass-roots, small and local organisations, like ourselves, financially so that we can continue to do the work we do such as our Tackling Period Poverty programme.
As we were Lush’s chosen organisation for the weekend of the 1-2 September, one of our volunteers, Iloni, and one of our advisors, Carolyn, went along to wo-man the (suitably Lush-styled aesthetic) stall that Lush had kindly provided for us. We took along a range of our products, stacks of leaflets and information as well as our enthusiasm for talking about all things to do with periods.
Over the weekend, we sold over £200’s worth of stock with Ruby Cups and Honour Your Flow re-usable pads proving most popular with Lush customers. On top of this, Lush sold so many of their Charity Pots that £340.60 was raised for No More Taboo – which was amazing!
However exciting the money side of things were with this event, what I personally took away as being the real highlight of the weekend was the number and nature of conversations we shared with customers.
Mothers and daughters came and chatted to us about how they agreed it was so important to use re-usable products for personal and financial reasons as well as for the planet’s sake. Boyfriends accompanied their other halves as they prodded and probed the range of menstrual cups on display. Older women commented on how it’s such a relief to be able to talk about menstruation in public and with people you’ve only just met. They regaled of a time when periods were even more hush-hush and celebrated with us out mission of there being No More Taboo.
We would like to thank Lush Cribbs Causeway for being such wonderful hosts, encouraging every customer that came through their doors to consider buying the Charity Pot or simply to chat with us. Each member of their staff team was incredibly warm and so keen to find out more about what we do. On behalf of all of us at No More Taboo, thank you.
For more information, take a look at their website: https://www1.uwe.ac.uk/whatson/biggreenweek.aspx
Read more here: https://www.wen.org.uk/environmenstrual-week-of-action/
