The hidden side of poverty

Poverty, alongside topics like coronavirus, Trump and climate change, is a pretty constant topic across the media these days. We endlessly debate the ethics of allowing children at home and abroad to go hungry or what society can do about homelessness or the highly visible need for food banks. But one area of poverty we rarely hear about and consequently regularly overlook is that of ‘period poverty’. According to the UN, economic disparities mean that women globally have a higher chance of living in poverty than men at all ages. They also face multiple forms of discrimination, and face increased risks of violence as a result of their poverty. In the UK, the same holds true, women have a higher risk of poverty than men. If you’ve stopped at a UK service station at any point in the last couple of years there is a high degree of likelihood you’ve seen posters in the ladies loo about a young woman who has fled war, famine and rape and who now has her period. It is immediate and real and it’s happening on our neighbours doorsteps; and yet’s it’s immediate, real and happening right on our own doorstep too. In 2017 Plan International undertook a survey into Period Poverty in the UK, of the 1,000 girls who took part they found: 1 in 7 struggled to afford sanitary products like tampons or towels; 1 in 7 borrowed products from a friend because they couldn’t afford to buy them; Girls regularly miss school because of their period and beca...
Source: The Hysterectomy Association - Category: OBGYN Authors: Tags: Health poverty Source Type: news