As NSW’s most celebrated and established professional female sports team, the Swifts are using International Women’s Day (IWD) tomorrow to call for greater awareness of an issue affecting one in five Australian women: period poverty.
Working with Share The Dignity, whose goal is to ensure no woman or girl goes without basic sanitary essentials, the seven-time Premiers are backing the Charity’s Dignity Drive to ensure all who menstruate have access to what they need.
Despite it being Australia in 2023, the facts make for painful reading:
- 1 in 5 Aussie women are experiencing period poverty.
- These women are often forced to choose between buying food or expensive sanitary items.
- Homeless women & children have to clean themselves in public toilets, using paper towels to create makeshift sanitary pads.
- Many of these women and girls are fleeing domestic violence.
- Despite periods being perfectly natural, there is still a ridiculous stigma surrounding menstruation in wider Australian society.
Since being founded in 2015, Share The Dignity and its army of 6,000 volunteers has delivered 3.8 million packs of pads and tampons to thousands women and girls in need of them.
Swifts players, including co-captain Maddy Proud, Tayla Fraser, Helen Housby and Maddy Turner have taken part in a promotional IWD video (watch below) to break the stigma surrounding periods, and call for greater awareness of issues facing women and girls affected by period poverty.
Head Coach Briony Akle said the Swifts had a social responsibility to promote the work done by the likes of Share the Dignity, especially on IWD.
“I cannot believe that we are now in 2023 and there are Australian women facing period poverty – it’s heart-breaking,” Akle said.
“The stigma around something as natural as menstruation should be smashed, we are in the 21st century, and it’s not like periods are a recent phenomenon!
“If ever women, and sports like netball which have always advocated for women, are going to reach equality in terms of pay and media representation, all Australian women should have basic human rights. As Share The Dignity are calling out, this is sadly not the case.
“With our long history it is important that the Swifts advocate for awareness of everyday issues affecting women all over the state.”
Share The Dignity Founder Rochelle Courtenay, who is proudly known as ‘Pad Lady’, thanked the Swifts for backing the cause.
“To have NSW’s best loved and successful female sports team not be afraid to tackle stigma’s shows that we are moving in the right direction,” she said.
“We first teamed up with the Swifts last year and loved their enthusiasm and passion to do what is right to support women and girls who are experiencing period poverty. We greatly appreciate that they have chosen International Women’s Day to highlight one of the biggest issues in Australian society.
“When someone is doing it tough, the last thing on their mind should be dealing with their period.
“We assist those in need by collecting hundreds of thousands of period products each year through collection drives and campaigns. These products are distributed directly to charities across Australia.
“We also work on advocacy by aiming to ensure menstrual equity here in Australia, and we helped to axe the tampon tax in 2018 and are now focused on ensuring all public hospitals offer free sanitary items to those who need them.”
MORE INFORMATION
To get involved in Share The Dignity’s Dignity Drive this March, please CLICK HERE.
