This Congresswoman nicknamed 'period lady' is on a mission to give all women access to menstrual hygiene products.
A New York congresswoman known as the "period lady” for her work on ending period poverty has proven critical in enacting changes so that girls in schools and women in prisons and homeless shelters can have free access to pads and tampons.
“When I first started studying up on this issue I sort of just assumed, OK, this affects people in underdeveloped countries and how can we help girls who have to skip school,” said Meng. “Then the more I learned about it, I realized that it’s happening to people right here in our country and right here in [New York City].”
It is those stories that Meng said she hears too often and which motivate her to make menstruation equity a priority in Congress. Up next, Meng took on the federal prison system after she heard stories of women in prison having to ration out their menstrual supplies with their cellmates or having to use limited funds in their commissary accounts to buy tampons and pads.
"Obviously people in both parties menstruate and know people who get their periods," said Meng of the bipartisan support she sees on the issue."Quite frankly, I find that a lot of people just haven’t thought about this issue and once they hear and learn about this issue are willing to support and help alleviate these situations."
Both of those bills are still pending in the House, while legislation she worked on in the last Congress that would allow people to use health savings accounts to buy menstrual products passed the House but was never taken up in the Senate. "Most of us have been conditioned for all of our lives to not talk about menstruation," said Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, a lawyer and author of"Periods Gone Public.""And the things that keep us potentially from succeeding are often the things that happen to be what we don’t talk about in polite society."
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