Menstruation Matters: Challenging the Law’s Silence on Periods

Pace University law professors Crawford (coeditor, Feminist Judgements) and Waldman deliver an accessible introduction to contemporary legal efforts to challenge the “culture of silence, stigma, and shame associated with menstruation.” Documenting campaigns to repeal sales taxes on tampons and pads, the authors argue that taxing menstrual products while exempting Band-Aids, adult diapers, and other hygiene supplies is a form of sex discrimination prohibited by the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause. Crawford and Waldman also examine how Title IX lawsuits might be used to press school districts into removing “restrictive bathroom-break and problematic dress-code policies,” among other accommodations, and document attempts to use the 1978 Pregnancy Discrimination Act and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to address workplace menstruation concerns. A compassionate exploration of the issues faced by trans and nonbinary menstruators highlights corporate responses to advocacy, including Proctor & Gamble’s removal of the Venus symbol from their products. Elsewhere, Crawford and Waldman relate concerns over toxic shock syndrome in the 1970s to contemporary anxieties over cancer-causing PFAS compounds in menstrual underwear and cast a skeptical eye on period-tracking and fertility apps and other aspects of “menstrual capitalism.” This wide-ranging and well-argued study brings an important yet overlooked aspect of the fight against sex and gender discrimination into the light. (June)