Periods and the Menstrualscape: Menstrual Technology and Economic Imperatives in Scotland and the United States, 1870-2020

The Free Provisions Act is the first national legislation of its kind to provide menstrual products at no cost to women and menstruators throughout Scotland. Yet, this did not happen by accident, and follows historical trends in technoscientific progress and social change. This essay tracks the relationship of women’s acceptance of menstrual technologies with prevailing social and political vectors in United States and Scotland. There are four significant historical moments marking technological change and adoption: the late-Victorian period and the first menstrual product commodities; the modern period marked by World War I through the 1930s that included broadly produced and advertised sanitary napkins; World War II to the mid-twentieth century and the acceptance of tampons; and the 1970s women’s rights movement including the emerging transition to menstrual cups. Within each are differing pressures exerted by both world events and internal societal changes that encourage women to adopt new products. But at moments when wage labor benefits the state, some institutions, heath providers, and educators exert pressure to disregard forms of menstrual stigma and use menstrual products instead. These shifts and movements, along with the prevailing visual culture of advertising and product branding, encompass the menstrualscape. These historical moments and the contemporary menstrualscape signal a current transition in the making, with the promotion of menstrual cups as an environmentally sustainable way to manage menstruation. This aligns with the Free Provisions Act, in which state-sponsored provision of menstrual products serve the needs of the economy, the environment, and concern for gender equity.