Name: Jemma

Social Justice Group: Menstrual Health

Date of Fieldwork: January 31, 2018

Name of Organization: No organization

Person (people) with whom I met and their job titles: Mary Coyle a social worker for incarcerated women at Rikers Island

Type of Fieldwork: Interview

What I did:

We met her at Starbucks and met with Mary Coyle about incarcerated women’s lack of access to menstrual products and we talked to her about her role in the fight for menstrual equity.

What I learned:

We learned that incarcerated women don’t have a lot of access to menstrual products and because most of the guards are men a lot of guards hold menstrual products over them and torture them by depriving their right of access.

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

I learned that not only menstruating is not commonly thought about by society but also the circumstances different menstruators are dealing with such as being incarcerated. The issue of incarcerated women’s access to menstrual products and not thought about by the mainstream media and so the issue is not getting noticed. We need to get the word out to make change.