THE SENATE	S.R. NO.	23
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE RESOLUTION

requesting the University of Hawaii to support ending menstrual inequity by providing menstrual products to all persons, free of charge, in all University of Hawaii restrooms.

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii is statutorily prohibited from depriving the privileges of the University to a person on the basis of sex; and

WHEREAS, eighty percent of menstruating students in the State experience difficulties accessing menstrual products; and

WHEREAS, menstruating students unable to access menstrual products face a significant barrier to education that biologically male students do not, as a lack of access to menstrual products can limit full educational participation and negatively impact a student's access to learning; and

WHEREAS, "period poverty", or the inability to access menstrual products, disproportionately affects menstruating students, members of low-income households, individuals who identify as nonbinary or transgender, and many other groups of individuals; and

WHEREAS, according to a 2021 study conducted by the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women and Mai Movement Hawaii, lack of access to menstrual products contributes to higher rates of school absenteeism in the State, with forty-two percent of respondents missing class or leaving school early due to lack of access to menstrual products, and some missing as many as ten days per academic year due to a lack of access to menstrual products; and

WHEREAS, chronic absenteeism is one of the most powerful indicators of student success or failure; and

WHEREAS, a midyear assessment of Mai Movement Hawaii's 2021 Hoohanohano Initiative, a pilot project that distributes menstrual products to students at certain schools on the islands of Oahu, Hawaii, Maui, and Kauai, found convincing evidence that free menstrual products have positive educational impacts and decreased the number of students who missed at least one school day due to lack of access to menstrual products by more than fifty percent; and

WHEREAS, the University of Hawaii should uphold educational and gender equity by providing free menstrual products to all persons utilizing University restrooms; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirty-second Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2023, that the University of Hawaii is requested to support ending menstrual inequity by providing menstrual products to all persons, free of charge, in all University of Hawaii restrooms, including those of the community colleges; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Resolution be transmitted to the President of the University of Hawaii.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

University of Hawaii; Menstrual Inequity; Menstrual Products