You don’t have to be a devout activist to make the world a better place.
This International Women’s Day, we’re calling for action using the simplest, most intuitive tool available to us.
Love.
That is, love for yourself, love for each other, and love for what’s possible.
Because times are tough, and it’s easy to feel disillusioned.
But as long as we’re acting in the name of love, we’re never truly powerless.
Love for yourself: Because periods are a part of life.
In a society where periods are surrounded by stigma and shame, practicing radical self-love as a person who menstruates is an act of resistance.
So... how do you do it?
The first step is knowledge. Specifically, learning…
- To unlearn the shame around periods.
- To view your cycle as a natural process that deserves your compassion and care.
- The basic science of the menstrual cycle – and how hormonal shifts can affect energy, mood, and focus – so that you can tend to your body more intentionally.
It’s also crucial to know what’s not normal.
Periods shouldn’t consistently prevent you from going to school, working, or living your daily life. And yet, conditions like endometriosis are widely underdiagnosed and dismissed.
If you know that you’re dealing with more than “just a bad period” – we see you, we believe you, and you deserve answers. Self-advocacy might be the hardest and most important form of self-love out there.
Radical self-love also looks like caring for yourself unapologetically, especially during your period.
That might mean cancelling plans, resting more than usual, reaching for a heating pad, taking a bath, or letting yourself feel all your feelings.
Loving yourself as a person who menstruates means believing your comfort, dignity, and health are not luxuries. They’re basic needs.
And when we honour those needs, we make it easier for others to do the same – thus rejecting the cultural narrative that wants us to feel small, ashamed, or stoic about our cycles.
Love for each other: Because we are all connected.
Community might be the most universal human need there is.
You give what you get in this world. Compassion has a way of coming full circle: not only improving the lives of those around us, but supporting our own well-being, too.
Loving each other means using the power we have – however limited or vast it might be – to make life a little easier for the people around us.
That can look like…
- Listening and learning, especially as a period ally
- Putting a box of period products in your office or school’s washrooms, even if you aren’t someone who needs the products
- Starting a conversation that challenges period stigma
At its core, the goal is beautifully simple: a world where everyone can care for their bodies without shame or barriers.
Who wouldn’t love to love in that world?
Love for what’s possible: Because we’re closer to menstrual equity than we’ve ever been.
While the work is far from finished, it’s worth pausing to recognize just how much progress this movement has made – especially in the past few years:- In 2022, Scotland became the first country in the world to make period products free for anyone who needs them.
- In Canada, federally-regulated workplaces are required to provide menstrual products in washrooms as of 2023 – treating them as equally essential to soap and toilet paper.
- Major institutions like the United Nations and the World Health Organization now formally recognize period poverty as a global health and human rights issue.
Culturally, the conversation is shifting too – visibly, for example, with olympic athletes speaking openly about what it’s like to compete on your period.
Progress might not always feel linear. But when you consider that tampons didn’t even exist 100 years ago, it becomes clear the menstrual equity movement we know today was once unimaginable – and that wasn’t so long ago.
Change happens because people keep showing up: with love for themselves, compassion for each other, and belief in what’s possible.
At The Period Purse, that belief fuels everything we do.
We’ll continue pouring all our love into this work until:
- Everyone in Canada has access to the period products that work best for them.
- Inclusive, all-gender menstrual education reaches every student in the country.
- From city halls to Parliament Hill, policies support people who menstruate in every workplace, school, and community.
As hard as it can be, please don’t let the system convince you that you’re powerless.
Real change has always been driven by ordinary people, choosing love and hope over hate and despair.
And if the past decade has shown us anything, it’s that we are closer to menstrual equity than we’ve ever been.
Ready to help move it forward? Explore our calls to action and join the movement today.
