Code Red

Code Red is a student-led project aimed at combating period poverty at George Mason University. The project was initiated in response to the growing concern of the inaccessibility of period products for women who struggle to afford them. The project adopted a multi-faceted approach that included writing to congressional representatives, donating period products to women’s shelters, and making informational posters.

The project’s first objective was to raise awareness of the issue of period poverty among policymakers. Members of the project wrote letters to their congressional representatives, urging them to support legislation that would make period products more accessible and affordable. The letters highlighted the challenges that women face in accessing menstrual products, especially those who live in poverty or experience homelessness. They also emphasized the importance of menstrual hygiene in preventing health issues such as infections and reproductive disorders.

The project’s second objective was to provide period products to women who cannot afford them. Code Red partnered with local women’s shelters and donated a range of menstrual products, including tampons, pads, and menstrual cups. These donations helped to ensure that women in need have access to basic menstrual hygiene products and can manage their periods with dignity and without shame.

Finally, Code Red aimed to educate the campus community about period poverty and its impact on women’s lives. The project created informational posters that were displayed around campus to raise awareness about the issue. The posters included information about period poverty, its causes, and its consequences, as well as tips for supporting women who experience it.

Our group code red is choosing to look
at the conflict of period poverty. Period poverty is described as the phenomenon
of being unable to afford products such
as pads tampons or liners to manage
menstrual bleeding in lieu of Sanitary
products Many people are forced to use
items like rags paper towels toilet
paper cardboard. This conflict affects
all sorts of women throughout the world,
in fact according to an article
published by medical newsstoday.com 500
million menstruating women lack access
to proper products. The article also
mentions a significant part of the issue
which is tax. As of June 2019, 35 states
in the U.S taxed menstrual products at
rates between 4.7 percent in Hawaii and
9.9 percent in Louisiana. This is not a new
occurrence for women as something known
as the pink tax exists. This is when
products marketed towards women are
taxed higher than the products marketed
toward their male counterparts. This is
part of the issue but the major issue is
still at hand. Women cannot afford the
products necessary to handle their
menstrual cycles. There are some options
to help out those who cannot afford the
products, these options include the
machines that can be found in public
bathrooms that women can put a quarter
in and get a menstrual product however
the issue with this option is that the
machines are rarely filled and when they
are filled the products are toxic and of
poor quality. Even the options given to
try and Aid with period poverty are
executed poorly. Our group wants to find
ways to help women who suffer from
period poverty get the products they
need as well as trying to make a change
to reduce period poverty. Women all
around the world grapple with the
inequities of being able to successfully
equip necessary menstrual items as a
result many are forced to experience the
burdens. Menstrual products are not a
need they are a necessity.
Social economic factors
disproportionately impact lower and
middle class consumers. Both groups
experience significant pressure from the
manufacturers and retail parties To
maintain that relationship the main goal
of the manufacturing party is
accumulating profit. one may directly
examine the underlying interests
positions and objectives of all parties
involved in the following conflict map
our conflict map covering period poverty
is complicated to say the least as there
are many variables when it comes to
accessible administrators health. For
parties we started with the
manufacturers retailers the middle class
and the lower class the main interest of
both the manufacturers and retailers is
profit despite what might happen to
Consumers. consumers are often loyal to a
company because it is what they have
known whether they have been exposed to
it by other consumers or happened upon
it. people are creatures of habit and
tend to stick to certain products
although companies have a loyal consumer
base because of the necessity of period
products if pushed too far their
base will dwindle. for consumers these
products are vital for Health Care
however because of this neither the
middle upper class nor the lower class
can get out of their relationship with
the producers and retailers
for middle class and upper class
consumers
because they oftentimes have access to
less harmful products and sexual health
education they’re less likely to get
illnesses like toxic shock syndrome
which are more often caused by poor
quality period products they therefore
have the means in education to invest
more in reproductive Health Products
lower class consumers do not have this
luxury
while both groups have a desire for safe
affordable products cheaper products
oftentimes contain harsher chemicals
that create dangers to Consumers due to
menstrual products being advertised as
pure to promote the idea of sterility
and safety in order to achieve this
whiteness bleaches chlorine carcinogens
and other reproductive toxins are added
these chemicals have been directly
linked to poor sexual health

so what is the advocacy plan for code
red in order to actively fight against
the effects we have taken approach to
address all issues of period poverty
which many women in our community deal
with we have identified three courses of
action that will make a meaningful
difference in the lives of those
affected by this pressing issue
our first step is providing immediate
relief to those experiencing the effects
of period poverty the second is to
openly educate students and members of
our community on the very important
issue that many women face and lastly
advocacy petitioning those who allow
period poverty to continue its harm
these all will make a significant
difference in addressing the issue of
period poverty and hopefully one day
ending it
action taken by code red includes all of
these options
the first course of action we have taken
is to provide immediate relief to those
affected by period poverty in order to
achieve this goal we have collected from
our community at Mason Gathering
essential menstrual products for
distribution to those in need
these products were donated to Greater
DC diaper bank and in addition to a
local women’s shelter called new
Endeavors that focuses on setting women
up to become self-sufficient by donating
to local organizations and shelters we
hope to make these products easily
acceptable to those who require them
the second course of action we have
taken is to openly educate students and
members of our community on the very
important issue of period poverty in
order to achieve this goal we have
created a comprehensive poster to raise
awareness of the issue that highlights
the detrimental reality of the effects
of period poverty and in addition to how
individuals can also play a role in
diminishing it
lastly we launched the petition to put pressure on
those who allow period poverty to
continue its harm by creating a template
email we encourage members of our
community to reach out there to their
elected officials including senators
congressperson and local legislators our
hope is that by a collective effort to
advocate for change we can create a
large amount of support that no one can
ignore

when it comes to the impacts of our
advocacy plan and action taken we have
short and long-term impacts long-term
impacts include educating people about
period poverty and spreading the word on
what they can do to help address the
issue also by reaching out to
legislators we expressed Our concern
over period poverty and our desires for
them to address the issue as for
short-term impacts this included making
donations of collected supplies to a
women’s shelter that will directly help
women locally that are struggling with
period poverty
some challenges that we have faced while
taking action against period poverty was
trying to educate people and get them
passionate about a topic that may not
directly affect them it could
be difficult to get people to care about
an issue that they are unfamiliar with
another challenge was patients people
want immediate results but a problem
like period poverty that has been
happening for a long time is going to
take some time to be addressed and
immediate results are unfortunately
unlikely