Today, George Osborne announced that your period will help abused and unwell women. Hooray, right?
In the budget, George announced that: ’I’m going to use the £15 million a year raised from the Tampon Tax to fund women’s health and support charities.’
‘The first £5 million will be distributed between the Eve Appeal, SafeLives and Women’s Aid and The Haven – and I invite bids from other such good causes.’
Jess Phillips, a vocal MP in the fight against all things sexist, shouted out ‘You’re not paying it George, I am!’
But as well as taking the side of those who think it’s a little perverse to take money from women’s necessary bodily functions to give to women hurt by others’ very unnecessary bodily functions, we wanted to ask: what do the charities think?
So we called each of them and asked them what they think of the funding they’ve just been given.
Athena Lamnisos, the CEO, of the women's cancer charity, said: ‘I would like to say a huge thank you. The funds granted today will help us take forward solutions for key health issues that directly affect 516,000 women each year across Europe and will make a significant difference to our medical research.’
‘We couldn’t think of a better source of funding for medical research which directly affects women.’
Chief Executive Diana Barran of this anti domestic abuse charity welcomed the funding, but also said: ‘Domestic abuse is a societal issue, and is everybody’s business. We look forward to working with the government and Women’s Aid to tackle this national problem together; this funding will go towards providing effective help, earlier, to victims and their families’
Polly Neate, CEO of Women’s Aid gave this statement: ‘The £2 million funding from the government towards the new domestic abuse early intervention project, Sooner the Better, is fantastic news…
‘However, today the Chancellor announced that this money will come from the taxation on sanitary products. Whilst we welcome this money being used to help women, especially at a time where the government are campaigning for sanitary tax to be zero rated, we need to be clear that domestic abuse is not just a women's problem for taxation on women's products to solve - it is an issue for everyone in society and men and women must address it together.’
When we called the breast cancer charity they informed us that, yes, they were informed of the funding they'll be recieving this morning , but that ‘We weren’t aware that it would come from the Tampon Tax’.
While they wanted to make no comment on the Tampon Tax, where their £2.65 million funds will come from, their CEO Pamela Healy OBE said: ‘We are absolutely thrilled with the Chancellor’s substantial donation which is a huge boost to that expansion programme…words cannot express how delighted we are that the Government has recognised the importance of our work. Thank you, thank you and thank you again.’
The split in opinion is obviously rooted in the fact the ‘women’s services’ being provided for by the proceeds of the tampon tax are for very two very different albeit similarly worthy types of causes. One is for women-specific healthcare, the other is for women-specific care for a much broader societal issue which is, in all too many cases, caused by men. The fact only women must make compulsory donations to the latter doesn't add up.
Celia Pool, founder of Sanitary Owl, a sanitary products subscription service told The Debrief: ‘While I would applaud any support for women’s health charities, the point is that they should not have to rely on a completely unfair and inappropriate source of funding.’
‘Having any form of funding generated simply because of the way a women’s body naturally functions is absurd and I would suggest that making provisions for such crucial charities is an issue for the whole of society and not just women who have periods.’
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.