Honors Program Theses

Award/Availability

Open Access Honors Program Thesis

First Advisor

Disa Cornish

Abstract

Period poverty is defined as the inability to access menstrual products or adequate feminine hygiene due to economic vulnerability. This ultimately can cause social, political, and educational barriers. In the USA, 1 in 5 menstruating students will miss school since they are unable to obtain period products. The relationship between period poverty and educational disparities is not well understood but needs to be addressed to ensure equitable education. The provision of free menstrual products in public restrooms has slowly become more prevalent as a potential interventional approach. At the University of Northern Iowa (UNI) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, there is a student-led initiative to address the academic barriers that period poverty perpetuates. This program was founded between the Northern Iowa Student Government and the Northern Iowa Feminists and has accumulated data that represents the usage and impacts of the free period products. Within a single semester, they had distributed nearly 2000 tampons and 1500 pads between 17 academic buildings. This study is an investigation of enhancing accessibility to menstrual products and measuring the effects on academic success. This study has determined a positive impact on academic attainability due to the provision of menstrual products by analyzing the usage rates and interpreting anonymous student responses. However, the investigation of the University of Northern Iowa’s menstrual product initiative has also determined that the longevity of the program is jeopardized by the volunteer model. Due to this realization, this study also researches the menstrual product distribution systems at other academic institutions with comparable demographics to the University of Northern Iowa. Findings from the other institutions were compiled into recommendations on how to improve the current process of distributing menstrual products. Overall, the menstrual product initiative at the 2 University of Northern Iowa has shown promising results on improving academic disparities, but, in order to optimize these effects, there needs to be a deeper investment in the program.

Year of Submission

2025

Department

Department of Nursing and Public Health

University Honors Designation

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the designation University Honors

Date Original

2025

Object Description

1 PDF file (25 pages)

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

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