In March 2024, we launched the Women at the Top initiative. The idea came a bit out of nowhere, but we’re so proud of where it’s ended up. This initiative aims to influence as many companies as possible to provide free menstrual products to their employees. For us, it’s just a basic right. We released a video and then created promotional items that women could leave at different places throughout their workplace in order to raise awareness: fridge magnets, coasters, post-it notes… these items were distributed free of charge to provide a way for women to open up the conversation at their workplaces. Why shouldn’t menstrual products be provided for free? According to a small study we conducted, it costs about $0.07/day, per employee, to implement such a measure. Who can’t afford this tiny fee in order to provide peace of mind? I mean, do you bring your own toilet paper to the office?

To our great surprise (and delight!), thousands of businesses decided to follow suit and began to offer free menstrual products to their employees and even their customers. We've come a long way since our video was launched, and we've done it with a lot of magnets and coasters!

 

This October, we decided to launch phase two of the initiative that we call Enterprises at the Top and I’d really like my school to be at the top! The goal: to influence as many businesses as possible to get on board with the movement but ABOVE ALL, to influence the Quebec government to implement standards for providing free menstrual products in schools and public buildings across the province.

 

Did you know that Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and British Columbia all offer free menstrual products to all their students? And yet here in Quebec we have yet to make any progress on this front.

The good news that we like to tell ourselves is that it will never be too late to start implementing these measures. When free menstrual products finally do become widely available, will women across the province start berating the government for being too late? No. The only thing they will say is: thank you.

What about you? Do you believe? Do you think we can succeed in convincing the government to move forward? We might be naïve, but that’s never stopped us before! You might find us a bit annoying after a while to still be talking on and on about accessibility to menstrual products, but we like to think that it’s the vocal women like us and the vocal women like you working to spread the message that will succeed in bringing about real change.

- Andréanne Marquis, founder of Womance and Sans-Façon Cosmétiques