New period product dispensers were installed at the Yarra Junction Library and the Yarra Centre, ensuring free access for women across the Yarra Ranges.
Your Library chief experience officer Sarah Hopkins said public libraries already had other basic amenities and that free access to pads and tampons was a basic human right.
“There are other things that you expect to get when you go to a public library: toilet paper, soap, hand towel, a working hand dryer, things like that,” Ms Hopkins said.
“So I think that putting these toiletries in a place where people might need them for free is just part of being a female human.”
The new machines were installed in the public toilets at the Yarra Junction Library, while in the Yarra Centre they’re located in the stadium change rooms.
It came from the State Government’s free pads and tampons program, which has already saved women thousands of dollars in the first six months of the program.
Periods are a part of life yet it’s still shrouded in stigma – pads and tampons are a necessity, not a luxury.
One in five women and girls have reported struggling to afford period products and those who can’t afford period products are left feeling embarrassed and excluded.
Lack of access can significantly impact one’s wellbeing and affects one’s attendance at work, school, sport or other activities.
Other locations in the Yarra Ranges are set to have the machines installed, with Healesville Library marked to receive its free period product dispenser in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, public libraries in Belgrave, Ferntree Gully, Montrose and Mooroolbark have had their machines installed already.
The machines have a range of pads and tampons available, offering two packs of regular and super pads, and two and six packs of regular and super tampons.
Insights from 50 trial machines across 30 Melbourne sites helped inform the broader rollout and feedback from community members has already shown the difference the program is making for people doing it tough.
Minister for Women Natalie Hutchins announced the next 90 venues across Melbourne on Thursday 8 May.
“Period products are a basic necessity – and we’re making sure women and girls can get them for free, when and where they need them,” she said.
“This is about dignity, equality and making sure no one misses out on school, work or community life because of their period.”
Ms Hopkins said the presence of the free period product machines would potentially have an impact on the ingrained stigma that exists.
“I think that it might [help], that historically periods would be something that are kind of shameful and you don’t talk about them, you don’t want to know about them, and they’re quite hidden.”
“That is changing because 50 per cent of the population is going to have a period.”
“No periods, no babies, no life, no future. So yeah, I think getting rid of stigma is always a good thing.”
