The Period Project at SMU
Advocating for academic menstrual equity—on our campus and yours.
The Period Project at SMU is an initiative advocating for free and reliable access to pads and tampons at Southern Methodist University (SMU) and seeking to support menstrual equity efforts at other schools. No student should have to miss class because they don’t have access to menstrual products.
First, what is menstrual equity?
Menstrual equity is equal access to personal hygiene products that are basic necessities—such as toilet paper, pads, tampons, etc.
When we enter a public bathroom, we expect to find running water, soap, and toilet paper to accommodate our basic needs. For menstruators, menstrual products like pads and tampons are just as essential to daily function as toilet paper—and should be treated with an equal standard of availability.
Why is menstrual equity important in schools?
Providing free pads and tampons on campus promotes equal academic opportunity.
Schools providing menstrual products can help address gender inequality, period poverty, and academic disparities.
So, you want menstrual equity at your school…
We want to help. When The Period Project at SMU started in 2018, we had no template or model for how to navigate making this change. Since then, we have learned a lot, developed useful resources, and conducted valuable research. We want to share that with you—to support your initiatives and efforts towards menstrual equity.
So, we developed the Academic Menstrual Equity Toolkit.
Learn more about our project.
The Period Project at SMU was presented at the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics (APPE) Conference 2021.
