A fascinating Fast Company story, “Bleeding on the Job: A Menstruation Investigation,” published this week lays out—in sometimes squeamish, “I’ve been there” detail—the argument that menstruating at work costs women productivity. It presents the economic case for employers to supply women with sanitary items and for period-talk to be considered less taboo in the workplace.
And it has me positively torn on the issue.
Part of me says, Bring on the free tampons. Those things are expensive! Certainly, these supplies should be available at no cost to low-income women—New York City now provides them to public schools and homeless shelters—and they should be tax-free for women who can afford them. Nancy Kramer, a marketing CEO who started an organization called Free the Tampons, takes the argument even further, stating that companies should supply them too. According to her estimates, the benefit would cost (presumably, U.S.-based) companies $4.67 per woman, per year. That’s a small price to pay to reduce women’s time-of-the-month hassle.
At the same time, I’m surprised that for some working women, periods are still this big of an issue. We operate in business and political spheres built by and for men—right down to the office thermostat. And working women have managed to scale corporate hierarchies and blast through all kinds of barriers with little accommodation for even the most disruptive of female traits—the ability to give birth. Asking employers and male coworkers to now be more sensitive to our most mundane attribute feels a little like we’re speeding backward in time.
Are you of the mindset that menstruating at work is no big deal? Or will you be first in line to adopt one of article’s more far-fetched ideas: charts that track women’s hormonal state, on display for the whole office to see?
I’m interested in your feedback. Email me at [email protected].
Fortune writer Claire Zillman
(filling in for Laura this week)