.png){kind=small}
When visiting developing nations as CEO of Procter & Gamble, colleagues and I often discovered that the people we met lacked the opportunity to reach their full potential. In many cases, that would be due to a lack of adequate education and a lack of access to quality health care.
In some countries, we discovered that many people didn’t understand menstruation and puberty in girls. As it turns out, they were hardly alone. A report by P&G and WASH United found that period shame, taboos and misinformation prevail worldwide.
My wife and I witnessed this once when visiting a Hindu temple in Bali. A sign read, “If you’re a woman that’s menstruating, you’re not allowed in the temple.”
Historically, beliefs existed in the Christian Bible or Jewish Torah about a lack of cleanliness during menstruation. Many of those customs probably made sense at the time they were created. But they don’t make sense today, and they , and misinformation prevail worldwide.