We dread those few days each month where it feels like our uterus is being stabbed from the inside out and achieving cleanliness is an impossible feat.
Our period is something women have very little control over, so why do we have to suffer without support from our workplaces?
Finally a future where we don’t have to is on the horizon.
One small company has taken a step in the right direction, fulfilling women’s dreams all around the world. They have started ‘A Period Policy’.
UK based non-profit organization Coexist have launched the Period Policy which enables women who are having a bad-cramp day to have a paid sick day off.
Company director Bex Baxter, who employs 31 staff – seven male – at the social community group Coexist, is dedicated to breaking down the stigma surrounding ‘women’s issues’.
“I have managed many female members of staff over the years and I have seen women at work who are bent over double because of the pain caused by their periods,” she told The Mirror UK.
“Despite this, they feel they cannot go home because they do not class themselves as unwell. This is unfair… If someone is in pain – no matter what kind – they are encouraged to go home.”
“I want us to break down that shame and replace the negativity with positivity. For too long there’s been a taboo surrounding periods – I have women staff telling me they are ashamed to admit they’re in pain.”
She encourages her employees to be empowered to be their optimum selves and accept their body’s phases.
“If you work with your natural rhythms, your creativity and intelligence is more fulfilled… And that’s got to be good for business.”
The policy and concept of a women taking time off due to her period will be further explored as part of a seminar at Hamilton House on March 15 called ‘Pioneering Period Policy: Valuing Natural Cycles in the Workplace’.
The leader of the seminar Alexander Pope believes that encouraging “cycle awareness” will benefit both men and women.
“The purpose of this policy initiative is to create a positive approach to menstruation and the menstrual cycle that empowers women and men and supports the effectiveness and wellbeing of the organisation. To restore the menstrual cycle as the asset it is,” he told The Mirror UK.
This policy as well as the protesting of sanitary pad taxes mark a new era in women’s rights.
It is about bloody time that we are talking about our bloody time.
