Name: Olivia Bagan

Social Justice Group: Menstrual Health

Date of Fieldwork: January 31, 2018

Name of Organization: N/A

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Mary Coyle, Social Worker at Rikers Island

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We interviewed Mary Coyle about what she does for the incarcerated women at Rikers Island and how much access they have to the products they need.

What I learned:

A lot of the guards, who she told us were mostly men, don’t understand how many pads or tampons someone needs based on their flow because they never learned about it when they were younger. This brought up something that is really relevant to our topic because we think that it is necessary for people, no matter their gender identity, to learn how everyone’s body functions.

What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:

We didn’t learn a lot of new information but it was interesting to hear the information from someone who is in direct contact with the women.