For all the bills introduced this legislative session that feel like they’re dragging West Virginia backwards, there are few that are pushing the state forward — and it’s about time.
SB 287 (local sponsors, Sens. Bob Beach and Sen. Mike Caputo) and HB 2564 (local sponsor, Delegate John Williams) are virtually identical bills that would require county boards of education to provide free feminine hygiene products for grades 6 to 12, while SB 302 (local sponsors, Beach and Caputo) would prohibit pricing goods and services on the basis of gender. In short, it would eliminate the pink tax.
Already we can hear the grumbles about free stuff being unfair, so let’s start with SB 287 and HB 2564. The bills cover free feminine hygiene products — “tampons and sanitary napkins,” or “pads” — for grades 6 to 12, which makes sense given the average age for the start of menstruation (aka a “period”) is 12 years old.
Why should schools provide pads and/or tampons at no cost? Because menstruation happens. Periods can start unexpectedly — especially if it’s someone’s first period — which makes it easy to be caught unprepared. And once a period starts, it can’t be stopped. It’s unfair for someone who is menstruating at school but doesn’t have supplies to have to a) ask teachers or peers if they have a spare tampon, which can be embarrassing and invasive of their privacy; b) improvise by using toilet paper to create a makeshift tampon or pad, which isn’t as effective; and/or c) finish the school day with a bloody spot on the back of their pants, which is both unhygienic and mortifying.
On top of all that, feminine hygiene products are expensive. On average, a box of tampons plus a box of panty liners cost about $12 a month — about $2,000 over the course of a lifetime, according to the Huffington Post. The expense is annoying but manageable for many people; however, that $12-plus a month is a steep cost for low-income individuals. In a household where money is tight, a child should never be punished for a bodily function they can’t control. That is why schools should offer pads and tampons for free.
Speaking of costly feminine products, let’s talk about the “pink tax” and SB 302. The pink tax is not a tax, per se, so much as the difference in price between a product or service marketed to women and one marketed to men. According to a 2015 New York City Department of Consumer Affairs report: Toys marketed to girls cost 7% more; personal care products marketed to women cost 13% more; and adult clothes marketed to women cost 8% more. According to Intuit, for services, women are usually charged more for dry cleaning, car repairs, car insurance and mortgage interest.
SB 302 nullifies the difference in pricing between products and services marketed to women and those marketed to men. That means no more paying more for a pack of pink razors or a purple bottle of shampoo. And those savings will add up over the course of a lifetime.
Femininity in general, and female bodies in particular, are punished by our economy — whether it’s expensive tampons, pink taxed products, lack of maternity leave, lower wages, etc. — and it’s heartening to see West Virginia take steps toward leveling the playing field.
