Summary: Menswear on campus

On March 8, 2023, Uppsala Student Union submitted a letter to Uppsala University to recommend a pilot project with free menstrual protection. The background to the letter was one of the three election promises that the union's board took on to implement during the financial year 22/23. The inspiration for the proposal came, among other things, from Scotland, where this service has been introduced at all universities.

As Uppsala University is a large organization with a large number of students, employees and visitors, we were keen to develop an informed proposal. The first step in the process was to talk to companies with the capacity to supply feminine hygiene products to similar sized organizations to design a realistic proposal.

After discussion with the University's current sanitary ware suppliers, we concluded that the best way forward was a pilot project. Such a project would allow the University to test the cost of providing sanitary pads and the benefits of this service to students and staff. Our basic approach to the project, then as now, is that sanitary pads are as obvious a sanitary product as toilet paper, soap or paper towels.

Despite this preparatory work, the letter was unfortunately rejected. The university explained that it considers that it cannot use state funds for such projects. The reply also mentioned that the economic situation we are in does not allow for such initiatives. 

On the first counter-argument, we simply do not agree with the view of Uppsala University. The university uses government funds to buy furniture and build study spaces, to produce information material and advertising, and to buy the sanitary products already available in campus toilets. Why menstrual protection should be different from other services and projects that the university spends money on is hard to understand. It is clear that there would be a way if there was a will.

We understand, of course, that the financial situation is tight. At the same time, we are not asking the university to spend huge sums. On the contrary, the proposal we are recommending is adaptable to available funds. A reasonable budget could be discussed with the supplier and the project could be based on that. We genuinely believe that the proposal is worth testing even on a smaller scale. We are convinced that the cost is well justified and will be less than the amount the university seems to expect.

While we were planning the next step in our work, Upsala Nya Tidning picked up the letter and made a short report in which our Vice President Linnea Rydén participated together with Karin Apelgren, head of the university's student department. Karin emphasizes that the university is not negative to the proposal but returns to the financial objections. Linnea's response was in turn in line with the objections raised in this blog post; there is no reason to assume that the pilot project would be as costly as the university seems to believe. Uppsala University needs to rethink and investigate the matter to have the cost versus benefit black and white on paper. 

Shortly after the report, we also received a rebuttal from UNT's editorial writer Sakine Madon, who wanted to remind Uppsala Student Union that nothing is free. She also objected to the injustice she perceived in the fact that others than those who use the sanitary pads are helping to pay. Finally, she wrote that there is more important gender equality work for the university to do than menstrual protection.

First of all, we share Sakine's last point about the university's gender equality work. There is a plethora of serious issues to be addressed in this area. Discrimination, negative discrimination, systematic bias in recruitment to senior positions within the university and sexist structures are examples of these. Uppsala Student Union is actively involved in working on several of these. We sit on equal opportunities groups, work to offer support and advice to students who have been subjected to discrimination and last winter drew attention to the DO's report on the lack of active measures against discrimination at Swedish higher education institutions.

Our response to Sakine was published as a reply on the editorial page of UNT on May 12. In the reply, we responded to Sakine's objections and explained that we are well aware that free menstrual protection entails a cost - it is precisely to investigate that cost that our proposal is about. We then explained that we do not share Sakine's view of fairness, but on the contrary see it as a matter of course that we as a society pay for each other. Universities, schools, health care, traffic signs, bicycle racks and a plethora of other important social functions are funded by others than those who use them. There is therefore nothing controversial about our proposal for others to help pay.

Finally, we mention the role of sanitary protection in the university's gender equality work. Here we are clear that we do not see free sanitary protection as the main issue for a more equal and feminist university. However, free sanitary pads are a small change in the prevailing norms and stigmas associated with menstruation, a tangible and simple benefit for a large part of those who move around the university's premises, and a way to show that we are ready to invest in services that make the university a better place to be.

The work with free menstrual protection on Uppsala University campus continues. At the moment we are looking at other student unions' work with menstrual protection as there seems to be a lot of exciting projects on that front. We are also looking at the possibility of continuing to push the issue towards the university or even seeking our own funding to implement a pilot project on campus. Whatever happens, we will keep you as a member updated on the work.

Do you have thoughts or questions about this or any other of our student policy projects? Please contact our political secretary, Martin Carlfjord, via the email address polsek@uskar.se