Gabby Jahanshahi-Edlin on: Having a Bloody Good Period.
This episode features Gabby Jahanshahi-Edlin, founder of Bloody Good Period and Bloody Good Employer. Both are charities set up to help fight for menstrual equity and the rights of all people who bleed. Her aim was to create a society where periods are no longer taboo and where people have access to the right products when they need them. After stepping down as CEO, Gabby reflects on what inspired her to set up the charity and the great successes of the charity so far.
Where is Bloody Good Period now?
It’s a lovely situation to be in as the founder, to see how they are doing. Sarah, the new CEO and the team are thriving. They have been going into parliament, taking the glittery tampons, starting conversations with MPs, they’ve been increasing and improving the education programme and giving out even more period products than ever before. So, it’s bittersweet, but honestly, it’s incredible to see how well they’re doing, and the vision is still being carried out.
Why did you start Bloody Good Period?
I started volunteering at an asylum seeker drop-in centre with my local synagogue, collecting essential products for people seeking asylum to come and collect every month, to have a hot meal, chat and to receive some support. I realised that period products weren’t on the list of essentials they received. When I asked about it, I discovered there was a lack of funding. No one had thought that women would need them every month. There was a huge need and a massive gap in people’s thinking.
Long story short, I posted a Facebook status saying I was collecting period products, and they started coming in waves. I didn’t expect it to be so popular, but it was a visceral thought for people; I think especially for women and people who menstruate, they could see how difficult it is not to have the period products that you need when you need them. I started to develop what was then just a project into what became Bloody Good Period. Eventually, it became a charity because I wanted this service delivery to become sustainable and permanent.
Helping the nation to have better conversations.
One thing I can be 100% sure of is that these conversations are being had. Look at period product adverts; they are completely different. That might seem like a small thing, but that was where we were getting a huge amount of our shame and stigma or education from. Making sure that products didn’t rustle in our pockets when we were opening them in the toilets, making sure that nobody ever knew that we were on our period and that nobody could ever smell anything.
We turned the blood in the adverts red. We had a campaign called ‘We don’t bleed blue’ which along with other activists in that space, helped make a change, and that’s crucial. The news and the media are covering periods in ways they weren’t before. Nike, Liberty, The Body Shop, are influential brands, talking about periods, period poverty, and period equity, which is what we stand for.
Making workplaces period friendly
The other organisation that I founded in my tenure was Bloody Good Employers. It’s a social enterprise-style company that sits underneath BGP and raises funds for it, but it’s explicitly designed for the workplace. It offers workshops and supports to change comms culture and policies to do with periods because this is a place where periods can be the considered the most taboo. A lot of companies have come far, but there are so many workplaces that haven’t even thought about it. There are still women and people who menstruate getting managed out of their positions because of period pains or period-related conditions.
I think it’s essential that, before women and people who menstruate get to the point where they have to start thinking about menopause in the workplace, people are already thinking about periods. Everybody who has menopause has had periods first. It shouldn’t be that you only start thinking about this stuff once you reach a certain age.
Posted by Katie Daley
