Gender Equality and Public Restrooms

This week’s story update on the Election Central Web examines one person’s citizenship effort in Massachusetts.

When a male-bodied person walks into a public restroom, he can be reasonably certain that he will find the products he needs, such as toilet paper and paper towels, without having to pay for them. But for female-bodied people, there is not always the same guarantee. Some public restrooms stock free menstrual products (tampons and pads), but others don’t have them at all, or provide only machines that require exact change to use. This means that women are often left in the uncomfortable and inconvenient situation of not having the products they need. This week, Election Central takes a look at a high school student in Brookline, Massachusetts, who convinced her city to become the first in the United States to offer free menstrual products in all public buildings.

To learn more about this story, click here to visit the Election Central Web site and read the full posting.