Abstract (eng)
This empirical paper examines the problem representation of period poverty in the Period Products (Free Provision) (Scotland) Act 2021, specifically asking how an intersectional perspective is taken into account. To this end, an intersectionality-based policy analysis was conducted following Hankivsky (2012), which combines the Foucault-inspired, post- structuralist 'What's the Problem Represented to be?’ approach of Carol Bacchi (2009) with an intersectional perspective. The findings show that period poverty is represented through the lack of access to and (non-)affordability of period products. Furthermore, a critical examination of this problem representation was able to reveal underlying assumptions, limitations, and discursive, subjectification, and lived effects, and also illustrate that an intersectional perspective can be seen in so far as differences between menstruators are acknowledged and inequality-generating categories are recognized as interwoven with one another. It could be stated that this way of representing the problem - despite existing strengths of the law - will lead to the persistence of certain aspects of this problem, as the strong focus on period products distorts period poverty and hides other perspectives on and aspects of period poverty as well as different needs of menstruators.