Name: Olivia Atienza
Social Justice Group: 2020-2021, Menstrual and Maternal Health
Date of Fieldwork: February 3, 2021
Person (people) with whom you met and their title(s) & Name of Organization: Kate Barker Swindell (Service/Operations Manager) from Period: The Menstrual Movement
Type of Fieldwork: Interview
What I learned about Social Justice “work” and/or Civil and Human rights “work” from this fieldwork:
I learned about the difficult choices activists encounter everyday. One of them was having to choose who to give menstrual products to. Of course, we don’t want anyone to suffer from period poverty, but there is only so much one organization can do. I also learned more about period poverty and stereotypes surrounding menstruators. Many communities and religions view periods as “dirty” and “impure.” Certain areas have “red tents” which are basically camps that menstruators are sent to. Kate gave us some interesting statistics too. 1 in 10 college students in the U.S. suffer from period poverty, but on the brighter side, Period: The Menstrual Movement shipped over 2.6 million packages of products in 2020. I’m grateful that we got to talk to Kate. She was very open and knowledgeable about our topic.
