More than 500 rugby clubs in England will offer free period products for women and girls in an effort to boost female participation in the male-dominated game.
Rugby Football Union (RFU) made the announcement on Thursday, as England prepares to host the Women’s Rugby World Cup next year.
The announcement falls under RFU’s Every Rose strategy, a gender equality framework that aims to have more than 100,000 women and girls playing rugby by 2027.
According to RFU, about 300 period product packages have been delivered to rugby clubs around the country, with approximately 1,000 products installed in clubs’ bathrooms and change room facilities.
Marlie Packer, the captain of England’s national team, said the strategy is a much needed advancement in the game’s inclusion of women and girls.
“I think clubs offering these facilities makes rugby more inclusive,” she said.
“Just the simple things of sanitary bins, I know that sounds a bit stupid, but we never used to see them in the clubs’ toilets and changing rooms.
“And now to see sanitary bins and products, whether that’s a sanitary towel or tampon that you can grab and use when you need, when you’ve been caught off guard, it’s a really fantastic scheme.”
According to British charity Women in Sport, seven in 10 teenage girls avoid participating in sport when they are on their period.
It’s a very similar story here in Australia. According to Share the Dignity’s 2024 Bloody Big Survey, 68 per cent of women say they miss sport whilst they are on their period. More than three quarters (76.5 per cent) of these women do so due to fear of leaking.
Rochelle Courtenay, the founder of Share the Dignity, said the problem of fear of leaking has a simple solution: providing free period products in sports facilities, as well as other spaces like workplaces, schools and community spaces.
“It should be standard, like toilet paper,” Courtenay told Women’s Agenda upon the release of the survey earlier this year.
“What I want moving forward is better outcomes for girls and women, whether they’re at sport, whether they’re at work, or whether they’re trying to get an education.
“We’re not asking very much. We’re just asking for equity.”