tag:theconversation.com,2011:/global/topics/tampon-tax-22145/articlesTampon tax – The Conversation2021-03-07T19:07:23Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1565702021-03-07T19:07:23Z2021-03-07T19:07:23ZImagine having your period and no money for pads or tampons. Would you still go to school?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387954/original/file-20210305-23-1gcfgby.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-young-woman-menstrual-compress-tampon-1062948881">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p><a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-to-trial-free-tampons-and-sanitary-pads-in-public-schools-20210303-p577d7.html#:%7E:text=Last%20year%2C%20Victoria%20became%20the,will%20continue%20until%20June%202023.">The New South Wales Education Department said</a> last week said it would trial a program to hand out free pads and tampons in schools. Department secretary Mark Scott said:</p>
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<p>We are developing work on a pilot program around this and details will be emerging on that shortly.</p>
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<p>In a <a href="https://theconversation.com/3-out-of-10-girls-skip-class-because-of-painful-periods-and-most-wont-talk-to-their-teacher-about-it-150286">recent Australian study</a>, more than one-third of young women said they missed at least one class, either at school or university, in the past three months due to menstrual symptoms, including pain and fatigue.</p>
<p>Despite the fact menstruation can have a significant effect on around 50% of a school’s population, access to period products (such as pads and tampons) <a href="https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/feature/2018/05/25/menstrual-hygiene-management">is not yet universal</a>. Not even in Australia.</p>
<p>Young women are missing school because of this. This affects their mental health as well as their ability to participate fully in life.</p>
<h2>Missing out on education</h2>
<p>Period poverty is the lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, toilets, hand-washing facilities and waste management.</p>
<p>It’s a a problem that has a greater impact on women who are already marginalised. Many young women in remote <a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-girls-missing-school-during-their-periods-the-state-of-hygiene-in-remote-australia-79348">Indigenous Australian communities</a> are not attending school for several days each month during menstruation. </p>
<p><a href="http://healthbulletin.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/HealthBulletin-Women-and-girls-in-remote-Indigenous-Australian-communities.pdf">Research</a> suggests this is due to the high costs of feminine hygiene products, embarrassment and overcrowded bathroom facilities.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/indigenous-girls-missing-school-during-their-periods-the-state-of-hygiene-in-remote-australia-79348">Indigenous girls missing school during their periods: the state of hygiene in remote Australia</a>
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<p>While typically thought of as only physiological, periods and menstrual cycles are tied to psychological health. A lack of sanitary products can bring about feelings of profound shame and embarrassment. </p>
<p>Period poverty in developed countries is <a href="https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-020-01149-5">associated with</a> a lower quality of life, poor self-esteem and mental-health issues. </p>
<p>While there is no Australia data on how many women are affected, a sample of college women in the United States found 14.2% experienced period poverty in the past year. An additional <a href="https://bmcwomenshealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12905-020-01149-5">10% experienced it every month</a>. </p>
<p>Worryingly, nearly half of the respondents experiencing period poverty reported symptoms consistent with moderate to severe depression. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387950/original/file-20210305-13-179hor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Girl holding bloody tampon" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387950/original/file-20210305-13-179hor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387950/original/file-20210305-13-179hor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387950/original/file-20210305-13-179hor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387950/original/file-20210305-13-179hor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387950/original/file-20210305-13-179hor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387950/original/file-20210305-13-179hor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387950/original/file-20210305-13-179hor8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Having poor access to sanitary products can affect your mental health too.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-vector/hand-holding-used-tampon-disposal-1113664676">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>And having poor access to sanitation products during adolescence has long-term <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/period-poverty-anxiety-depression-study-women-mental-health-sanitary-products-a8452581.html">mental health</a> effects throughout a woman’s life.</p>
<h2>Seeing red: outrage about periods</h2>
<p><a href="https://eprints.qut.edu.au/201306/">Research</a> has found stigma and taboo about menstruation continue to be a problem. Many girls feel embarrassed to talk about it or ask for help. </p>
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<em>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/3-out-of-10-girls-skip-class-because-of-painful-periods-and-most-wont-talk-to-their-teacher-about-it-150286">3 out of 10 girls skip class because of painful periods. And most won't talk to their teacher about it</a>
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<p>Menstruation is frequently framed as troublesome, compared to the “exciting and powerful” bodily changes male teenagers go through when students are <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/713668302">taught</a> about them in sex education. </p>
<p>Society’s repulsion towards menstruation can be seen in ads for menstrual products that, until only recently, did not show blood. And when they did, it was met with <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-09-18/as-standards-rule-on-period-blood-after-complaints-over-libra-ad/11521530">considerable social outrage</a>. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/108gaP2rTas?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Blood Normal - Love Libra.</span></figcaption>
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<p>However, attitudes are starting to shift. </p>
<p>Since 2015, Australian charity <a href="https://www.sharethedignity.org.au/">Share the Dignity</a> has been working to reduce the impact of period poverty by installing vending machines that dispense free period products in schools, homeless shelters and other locations. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/period-poverty-why-one-in-ten-young-women-struggle-to-afford-pads-and-tampons-85715">Period poverty: why one in ten young women struggle to afford pads and tampons</a>
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<p>In 2019, Australia <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-45727980">removed</a> the GST on period products. And this year <a href="https://www.australianoftheyear.org.au/recipients/isobel-marshall/2276/">Isobel Marshall</a> was named the 2021 Young Australian of the Year in recognition of her work to fight menstrual stigma and period poverty. </p>
<p>But there’s more we can do.</p>
<h2>Free period products in schools</h2>
<p>Scotland was the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-scotland-politics-51629880">first</a> country in the world to make period products free to everyone who needed them in 2020. </p>
<p>New Zealand has <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/02/18/new-zealand-period-products-schools/">announced</a> the rollout of free period products in schools nationwide from June this year. </p>
<p>Victoria has <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/national/nsw/nsw-to-trial-free-tampons-and-sanitary-pads-in-public-schools-20210303-p577d7.html#:%7E:text=Last%20year%2C%20Victoria%20became%20the,will%20continue%20until%20June%202023.">installed dispensing machines</a> for period products in every government school. And South Australia recently announced it would provide free sanitary products to all female students in year 5 and above.</p>
<p>South Australian Education Minister John Gardner has <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-11/sa-school-sanitary-items/13146612">said</a>: </p>
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<p>We want to ensure that no girl or young woman in South Australia is missing school because they don’t have access to sanitary products.</p>
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<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387959/original/file-20210305-19-snz43o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People hold signs reading 'end period poverty'." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387959/original/file-20210305-19-snz43o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/387959/original/file-20210305-19-snz43o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387959/original/file-20210305-19-snz43o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387959/original/file-20210305-19-snz43o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387959/original/file-20210305-19-snz43o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387959/original/file-20210305-19-snz43o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/387959/original/file-20210305-19-snz43o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Things are changing: a protest in London, March 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/londonengland-march-8th-2020-protesters-4-1667875636">Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>This International Women’s Day it’s time to rethink menstrual education in schools to <a href="https://theconversation.com/it-will-take-lot-more-than-free-period-products-to-end-stigma-around-menstruation-151711">destigmatise periods</a>, encourage young women to seek help, and put access to period products for all Australians on the agenda.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156570/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A trial program will provide free period products in schools in New South Wales, like South Australia and Victoria already do. The rest of Australia must follow suit.Sarah Duffy, Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney UniversityMichelle O'Shea, Senior Lecturer, School of Business, Western Sydney UniversityPatrick van Esch, Senior Lecturer in Marketing, AUT Business School, Auckland University of TechnologyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/914172018-03-09T11:17:03Z2018-03-09T11:17:03ZAdventures in menstruation: how period product ads have changed to reflect a more realistic experience for women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209694/original/file-20180309-30989-aprb74.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pink-gerbera-daisy-flower-menstruation-pad-642055048">Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Fifty years ago “period” was a dirty word, and menstruation a shameful event that was not for public discussion. The <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/caitlin-moran-i-know-how-it-feels-to-be-poor-and-unwashed-qhp3hnvj0">recent</a> debate about <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-43058269">period poverty</a> and the ever-controversial subject of the <a href="http://www.womanandhome.com/life/news-entertainment/what-is-the-tampon-tax-why-do-we-pay-it-and-when-will-it-finally-be-scrapped-205638/">tampon tax</a> have reignited public interest in the politics of periods. Now it appears to have motivated the “femcare” industry to change the way it sells its menstrual products.</p>
<p>Before the market’s beginnings in 1930s America, women relied on homemade pads, natural materials, cloth or rags. Since then, advertising has dominated the visual culture of periods with images of femininity, promises of protection and a steady flow of blue liquid. But in the last three years, the femcare industry has demonstrated a significant change in tone. Why the change, and why now? Lessons from the history of period product advertising can help explain the departure.</p>
<h2>A very profitable taboo</h2>
<p>Inspired by First World War nurses who discovered bandages worked equally well for their own monthly bleeding, American companies Kimberley-Clark and Tambrands developed Kotex pads and Tampax tampons in the 1920s and 1930s (<a href="https://www.webmd.com/women/guide/menstrual-cup#1">menstrual cups</a> were developed around the same time, but flopped). But these big companies found advertising menstrual products a tricky challenge.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209107/original/file-20180306-146645-ue3stz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/209107/original/file-20180306-146645-ue3stz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209107/original/file-20180306-146645-ue3stz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209107/original/file-20180306-146645-ue3stz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=788&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209107/original/file-20180306-146645-ue3stz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209107/original/file-20180306-146645-ue3stz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/209107/original/file-20180306-146645-ue3stz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=990&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Period adverts for some reason are terribly fond of blue menstrual blood.</span>
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<p>Early ads featured medical authorities and soothing older women. Once consumers had become familiar with the product, less information was needed. In the 1950s, Johnson & Johnson adverts featured women in evening gowns. Campaigns were aimed at pre-menstrual girls through sponsored sex education and infomercials such as Kotex’s 1946 Disney film, The Story of Menstruation. By mid-century, increasing numbers of women in the West used disposable pads or tampons from leading American brands.</p>
<p>When <a href="https://tavaana.org/en/content/1960s-70s-american-feminist-movement-breaking-down-barriers-women">Second Wave feminism</a> erupted across America in the 1970s, the industry acknowledged that evening gowns and Disney would no longer cut it. Feminist bestseller <a href="https://www.ourbodiesourselves.org/publications/">Our Bodies Ourselves</a> and <a href="https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/issues/abortion/roe-v-wade">the abortion debate</a> meant that periods had become a political issue.</p>
<p>The femcare industry saw this as a golden opportunity to gain the trust of young influencers, and targeted hippies and feminists with the language of freedom. When Kotex released New Freedom adhesive pads (a huge deal because belts and pins were no longer needed to keep pads in place) the ads included lines like: “You’re Free!” Consumers quickly switched to the adhesive pads and advertising took a back seat.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Kotex/YouTube.</span></figcaption>
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<h2>Crisis and innovation</h2>
<p>In the late-20th century, men working in advertising shunned menstrual product accounts. Women were often left covering femcare, where small budgets and ridicule meant that their campaigns did not win the advertising awards necessary for prestige or career advancement.</p>
<p>Two crises shook up industry in the 1980s. First, the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=toxic+shock+syndrome+history&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b-ab">Toxic Shock Syndrome</a> scandal where 38 women in the US died after using Rely super-absorbent tampons, saw a drop in tampon use for the first time. Second, new competitors challenged the traditional existing brands. Women were left with more choice, but less trust in products they thought were safe. </p>
<p>The crises meant that new branding was urgently needed, and advertising became a big priority, with spending skyrocketing in the 1990s. At the same time, feminism became a hot issue in mainstream debate – again. Campaigns like <a href="https://www.unilever.com/news/news-and-features/Feature-article/2017/Announcing-the-Dove-Real-Beauty-Pledge.html">Dove’s Real Beauty</a> made headlines and won awards, paving the way for today’s campaigns.</p>
<p>Since Newsweek defined 2015 as the “<a href="http://www.newsweek.com/2016/04/29/womens-periods-menstruation-tampons-pads-449833.html">Year of the Period</a>” after stories emerged about the censorship of menstruation in advertising and social media, period product advertising has broken all the rules. The challenge for advertisers today is connecting with millennial women who are critical readers of advertising and back campaigns to ban the tampon tax and end period poverty.</p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">Bodyform/YouTube.</span></figcaption>
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<p>This has led to a flurry of creativity and innovation. “Period-proof” underwear <a href="https://www.shethinx.com/pages/it-works/">THINX</a> was the first to <a href="https://www.shethinx.com/pages/people-with-periods">include a trans man in its advertising</a>. Bodyform was <a href="https://www.campaignlive.co.uk/article/blood-new-normal-why-bodyform-libresse-took-marketing-risk-campaign-periods/1447989">the first to show a blood-like stain</a> instead of the sanitised blue liquid. Menstrual cup <a href="https://www.mooncup.co.uk/">Mooncup</a> focuses on environmental messages “for our future” and encourages women to “own your period”. With so many social justice messages and new products, there is more choice and information to filter than ever before.</p>
<h2>Strange bedfellows</h2>
<p>So now the big period brands appear to be communicating the same messages as female activists. But like the 1970s, today’s “feminist” ads present a familiar script: menstruation must still be hidden, and these commercial products will hide it. But unlike the 1970s, women in advertising are being recognised for their creative, innovative work in a category previously deemed valueless. At the same time, social shame seems to be diminshing, with femcare ads more comfortable with using words like “blood” and “periods” instead of soft-pedalling the message with euphemistic language.</p>
<p>But the femcare industry is not the pioneer changing the conversation, but rather people like comedian/activist/academic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/16/free-tampons-schoolgirls-menstruation-period-education">Chella Quint</a>, creator of comedy show <a href="https://chellaquint.wordpress.com/">Adventures in Menstruating</a>, who has protested against branded sex education in schools; poet-artist <a href="https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/features/meet-rupi-kaur-queen-of-the-instapoets-w514035">Rupi Kaur</a>, whose period-related artworks were banned from Instagram in 2015, then un-banned; <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-26260978">Arunachalam Muruganantham</a>, whose story about making affordable pads for women in India inspired the movie Pad Man; and <a href="http://www.vogue.co.uk/article/amika-george-period-poverty">Amika George</a>, the activist who led the march against period poverty in London in 2017. </p>
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<figcaption><span class="caption">TedTalks/YouTube.</span></figcaption>
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<p>Despite Bodyform’s real-looking blood and pink menstrual cups, there is little new in the industry’s attempt to emotionally connect with a new generation. Today, millennials might laugh at their mothers’ “feminist” choice of Kotex while celebrating a bloody Bodyform on social media. Perhaps this is why we are seeing a steady increase of “<a href="http://www.elleuk.com/life-and-culture/culture/news/a32099/what-the-hell-does-wokeness-mean/">woke</a>” period product ads that challenge the old norms: it worked before, it’s working now. </p>
<p>Advertisers have always played a part in changing public perception, but advertising can never be activism. Education about periods cannot be left just to big brand campaigns; if the goal is to change perceptions and dismantle menstrual taboos, it seems odd to rely on the industry that created so many of those perceptions in the first place.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/91417/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Camilla Mørk Røstvik does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Period product brands may appear all ‘woke’ and taboo busting, but we shouldn’t forget they helped create the taboos in the first place.Camilla Mørk Røstvik, Research Fellow, University of St AndrewsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/499132015-10-28T17:03:40Z2015-10-28T17:03:40ZWhy it’s so hard to lift the tampon tax<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/99979/original/image-20151028-21112-oxn1i9.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">From www.shutterstock.com</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The “tampon tax” is firmly back on the European agenda. In a single month, French MPs have voted against reducing the rate of value-added tax (VAT) on sanitary products <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-34538672">from 20% to 5%</a>, and British MPs have voted against an amendment to chancellor George Osborne’s finance bill to remove VAT on sanitary <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34645179">products</a>. </p>
<p>Currently in the UK, a rate of 5% <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-70118-womens-sanitary-protection-products/vat-notice-70118-womens-sanitary-protection-products">is charged</a> on sanitary productions which equates to £3 of an average £60 yearly spend. In Hungary <a href="http://thehoneyballbuzz.com/2015/04/10/why-ukips-focus-on-the-tampon-tax-is-misleading/">the rate of tax is 27%</a> but the lowest permissible rate across the EU for sanitary products is 5%.</p>
<h2>What is VAT?</h2>
<p>VAT was first introduced in the UK as a fundamental condition of joining the EU common market. Goods and services in the UK are taxable under four different <a href="https://www.gov.uk/vat-rates">VAT categories</a>: the standard rate (20%), the reduced rate (5%), the zero-rate (0%) and VAT exempt. The UK government in 1975 negotiated everyday essential items that were to be classified at the 0% rate. This included food and children’s clothing. The negotiation was final and, crucially, did not include sanitary products. </p>
<p>Sanitary products were charged at the standard rate in the UK until the <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2001/feb/14/budget2001.budget">2000 budget</a> at which point the VAT rate on sanitary products was reduced to 5%.</p>
<p>The <a href="http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/en/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32006L0112">essential legal instrument</a> regulating VAT application across the EU contains three provisions relevant to the tampon tax. Article 98 states that member states may apply a discretionary reduced rate to goods and services, including sanitary products. Article 99 provides the reduced rates may not be less than 5%. The UK’s zero-rated items status is preserved by Article 110.</p>
<h2>A tax on gender</h2>
<p>Although there is a cost-saving element, there is also the fact that charging VAT on an everyday essential item for women means the tax becomes a tax on gender. It is a form of discrimination based on a natural biological process authorised by a primarily male government from 40 years ago.</p>
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<p>Campaigners highlight that exotic meats (such as kangaroo steaks) and alcoholic dessert jellies are <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-notice-70114-food/vat-notice-70114-food">zero-rated</a>. In terms of VAT classification, these items are deemed to be more essential than sanitary products. Sanitary products as a consequence are classed as non-essential luxury items.</p>
<h2>Can the government lift the tax?</h2>
<p>A long-term solution is difficult, because the current UK government is bound by the negotiations of a previous administration that took place four decades ago. Although unpopular with campaigners, the action of MPs to vote against the amendment is understandable: the UK is required to apply EU law and are legally correct to continue to apply the 5% rate at the moment. </p>
<p>The long-term solution from a UK perspective is to negotiate with the European Commission to produce an amendment to the directive and the other member states to authorise the change in position. </p>
<p>Following the House of Commons vote, the financial chief secretary to the treasury, David Gauke <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-34645179">said he would</a> “raise this issue with the European Commission and other member states setting out our views that it should be possible for member states to apply a zero-rate to sanitary products.” It is surprising that a request has not been made to the European Commission sooner given the campaign to reduce and remove VAT on these items dates back to the late 1990s.</p>
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<h2>What campaigners can do</h2>
<p>There is a way for campaigners to mandate the European Commission to investigate whether it has the ability to draft an amendment irrespective of the outcome of the commission’s review. The <a href="http://ec.europa.eu/citizens-initiative/public/welcome">European Citizens Initiative</a> is a petitioning system whereby at least a million signatories across seven EU member states can participate directly in the development of EU policies. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.change.org/p/george-osborne-stop-taxing-periods-period">UK petition</a> has far in excess of the required number of signatures to fulfil this and the existence of <a href="https://www.change.org/p/michel-sapin-r%C3%A8gles-et-tva-le-tampon-on-l-a-en-travers-de-la-gorge">similar campaign groups</a> across the EU with a significant number of signatures shows this process may be successful. </p>
<h2>Short-term fixes</h2>
<p>There are certain voluntary measures that both retailers and the government can do in spite of the current legal difficulties to make the best of a bad situation. </p>
<p>Retailers could be encouraged <a href="http://www.ueastudent.com/articles/we-re-going-profit-free-on-sanitary-products">to follow the example</a> of the University of East Anglia student’s union and sell sanitary products profit free in order to mitigate the financial impact of VAT to consumers. Committing to this approach may benefit in the long run, attracting new customers who may purchase other products for profit. Still, this would be a voluntary agreement and would fail to address the underlying issue of the symbolic existence of VAT and the tax paid would still be collected by the central treasury.</p>
<p>The government should consider waiving the income generated from VAT on sanitary products if possible. If this is the case the chancellor may be able to allocate funds raised by the tax to good causes. </p>
<p>In the spring and summer budgets of 2015, Osborne <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/budget-2015-libor-scandal-charities-to-benefit-from-75m-rate-rigging-fines-10117853.html">allocated revenue accrued from Libor fines</a> to specified good causes. The government could negotiate with campaigners to determine a list of appropriate good causes whereby the best is made of a bad situation and the tax, although paid disproportionately by one gender, could be used to support charities that assist women. </p>
<p>This would mean that the tax, although unpopular, could still have a positive social impact.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/49913/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michael Randall does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The government’s hands are tied on taxing tampons, but there are alternatives.Michael Randall, PhD Candidate in European Law, University of LeedsLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.