Dundee man leads fight against period poverty

[PrimAndProperPearlClutcher]

“It’s about making people aware of the availability of period products for anyone of any gender, whenever they need it.

... '“I was chosen as the best person for the job and for me, it’s irrespective of gender.

“Having a guy can’t be a bad thing – it grabs the headlines, but that’s not the reason I was put into post!” Jason continues.

“For me it’s about driving the discussion from a young age so boys and girls are included and there’s no hiding it away because that keeps it as a taboo topic.

“I want to be seen as a positive male role model.”'

www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/lifestyle/health-wellbeing/3593497/dundee-man-leading-period-poverty-fight-how-to-get-free-products/

"Maybe stock up the sanpro machines and give people a re-usuable token rather than a coin."

I would limit that to female people. The boys can buy their own.

I mentioned up thread that this scheme must be costing millions. Jason is on £36k for two years and there are 32 local areas in Scotland so that is potentially £2 million pounds! Then there is all the supporting staff, graphic design costs. I think it may have been cheaper to just post every household regardless if sex an average year supply! It is a huge amount of money. If course you could factor in all the time spent getting the Act through parliament. As other posters have said, why not free nappies which are much more expensive.

Did they consider just sending vouchers to all schools to hand out and to those on benefits? Sorry if this was all discussed at the time but it seems the management costs of this scheme far exceed the benefits.

My father in law who was abusive relationship would not give money for period products to my mother in law so she had to get a paper round. There may be women in domestic abuse situations who experience similar so free access for them would be good.

Could it not have been administered by health centres, like when you go and pick up free condoms? I just can't get my head around why this is all costing so much. Is it right that Scotland also gives free NHS prescriptions? If so does this have some complicated system of management?

It is certainly seems like there are alternative motivations about this financially obscene scheme.

Is it right that Scotland also gives free NHS prescriptions? If so does this have some complicated system of management?

Yes, it is. And no, prescriptions are free for all.

I agree, Female. A lot of this seems to be about show. It's like the baby box scheme, another Scottish government initiative - every couple that has a new baby receives a free box of baby-related goodies. There's no evidence that it improves outcomes for babies. But it looks good.

I wonder if this is to do with the limitations imposed on the Scottish government in terms of how they spend money? A more useful initiative might be to offer to pay everyone's tv licence - thousands of people each year in Scotland are prosecuted for failing to pay their tv licence. But I don't know if this is something that is within their powers.

Well yes.

See what I mean about the nexus of people being anti-SNP and tbh vehemently anti-Scottish, picking this as an issue - not because they care about women or girls but because they think it's an opportunity to criticise the SNP.

There are lots of issues with the SNP. But if you genuinely don't know about the issues with supplying vouchers rather than products, then you've obviously paid no attention at all to schemes to combat poverty and the best ways to get resources to DCs who are living in poverty.

This job seems to have been surrounded by an abnormally big publicity splash by the project team to publicly introduce a man who some people are trying to downplay as a junior pen-pusher or paperclip counter who will (allegedly) have no contact with female members of the public - as if all he wants to do is fill in his spreadsheets. I think the publicity already suggests he will probably be significantly more public-facing.

The situation is not helped by the apparent overabundance of this man's job titles. I have seen the role described as "regional lead officer", "project lead", "project officer", "project leader and manager", "project manager" etc. It seems like one person's "project manager" is another person's CEO and another person's filing clerk. Political leaders tell managers what to do. In many other walks of life, managers tell leaders what to do. This man's job title is probably meaningless. It is what he will actually do that counts. The job description includes the classic HR catchall statement "Other duties as required or as determined through project developments", which could easily have him mansplaining periods and menopause to female members of the public.

Totally agree.

We were talking about his work experience in the private sector- his role at the tobacco company & personal trainer, what with account managers and sales and business development mgrs , so I presumed you meant private sector marketing when you said “large scale marketing” experience as obvious he would have small scale marketing experience as a self-employed PT. You said:

He has worked in Sales for a Tobacco company and as a PT. Where is his large scale Marketing and Project management experience?

So I was just pointing out in public sector it isn’t really marketing because you’re not selling anything, so [private sector] marketing would have transferable skills but [private sector] marketing experience isn’t really essential?

Sorry to have confused, I admit now I wasn’t very clear. But I thought you were talking private sector marketing and PM experience from what you wrote.

Sorry, a bit of a derail, but this from Female's last post stopped me dead:

'My father in law who was abusive relationship would not give money for period products to my mother in law so she had to get a paper round'.

Bloody hell - the pure, petty, mean, nastiness and abusiveness of some men towards their wives still shocks, and I grew up with a violently abusive father (towards my mum and brother). At least we were given enough money for the basics!

I initially saw the free sanpro as a good idea, but it isn't really, is it?

The problem is poverty in general, not period poverty. Maya is right about that.

But because the ScotGov is unable or unwilling to do much about poverty in general, we get these tokenistic schemes instead.

I think people are seeing what they want to see, and imagining audio from Jason that would then cause what they think they see. They’re imaginatively projecting themselves on the girl and thinking how they’d feel if they were her AND Jason were explaining period products to them.

But logically we cannot know if they were talking or what they were talking about as these are staged photos. They’re not photos of Jason actually doing his job. So them sitting like they’re having a conversation, doesn’t even mean there was any conversation beyond the photographer telling them move this way or that.

Pictures tell a story.

that picture is telling a story

that’s the whole point of pictures

I was a public sector project manager for over 15yrs, it’s you and others who have never been a PM telling me and the other female PMs that we don’t know what we are talking about.

YOU @Hoppinggreen havent worked a day as a public sector PM as you said:

Funnily enough after over 30 years in Sales, Account Management and Marketing I do have some understanding of these roles.

So, honestly you don’t know as much as those of us who have extensive experience in PM roles.

That's interesting from Maya, that sanpro was given away free in schools, and there was hardly any take up.

I do know that getting behind campaigns over woman's menstruation was one of the transactivist bullet points for being accepted.

Hence all that unrelenting campaigning by Lily Madigan having the word period written in sharpie on their hand.

No, bad idea. Free Sanpro should be available for both sexes to pick up. Saying you must be female to pick them up forces girls/women to get their own Sanpro as this effectively bars them from sending a boy/man to get some on their behalf. In a year, I won’t have a DD at home any more, and my DH usually goes and gets my SanPro for me as I am disabled. So what now? I go without free Sanpro despite being part of the target population for it?

Yes exactly. It feels a bit like "we know you all chat openly about periods with each other but we want you to include us in those chats" which the cynic in me feels isn't far off "can I help you with your tampons?"

Also interesting this was about the one and only issue of biological females that was of any interest at all.

Other issues raised to this particular male women's officer were refused representation on the grounds that they were not women's issues because they were exclusive to female people. Which kind of blew apart the whole idea of a male person being able to represent female needs and interests which is what was intended by a women's officer in the first place.

I was, until that point, open minded about the best person for the role and why shouldn't a good, well qualified male with a passionate care for female need and interest be great in the post? Unfortunately I came to realise how very naive that was.

The opinion I am objecting to is that no man can do this job. My opinion remains that a man can do this job and if best qualified, should be chosen for the job.

It doesn’t matter whether this man was hired with every i dotted and t crossed or if the female hiring manager hired him using illegal preference. (No one’s speculated on what their motivation would be and why they’d risk their jobs and careers doing an illegal hire, but hey ho, everyones so convinced it must have happened)

Even if this man was hired due to illegal preference by this female manager, that’s not a reason to say we must bar all men from this job.

So, no I can’t stand by and agree on the basis of public outrage and speculation that these women (as one poster put it) “completely fucked up”

I will wait for the FOI and if an inquiry, the results of that before I condemn the actions of any hiring manager, but especially female hiring managers. We get enough sexist shit daily undermining our authority and insinuating we can’t do our jobs that we shouldn’t have to also put up with sexism from other women on top of that!

I bloody miss my naivete.

It doesn’t matter whether this man was hired with every i dotted and t crossed or if the female hiring manager hired him using illegal preference. (No one’s speculated on what their motivation would be and why they’d risk their jobs and careers doing an illegal hire, but hey ho, everyones so convinced it must have happened)

Cronyism is everywhere? The motivation isn't hard to understand.

I'm also pretty sure it's not illegal to make choices that reduce the amount of people applying for a role, or write a spec designed to give a specific person an advantage.

@1blossomtree
Besides, even if this man were hired illegally, there’s no guarantee the actual best qualified candidate was a woman. Posters are assuming the best qualified candidate must have been a woman, when for all we know another man could have been the best candidate for the job.

What will the outraged do then? To what lengths are they prepared to go to insist men be barred from this role?

twitter.com/ForWomenScot/status/1560323542058680321?t=uScgAmZGVRNBg8xFAnr5lw&s=19

Dundee City Council Leader finally speaks up. 'We don't have male and female jobs' Do no SNP politicians know the Equality Act?

I'm also pretty sure it's not illegal to make choices that reduce the amount of people applying for a role, or write a spec designed to give a specific person an advantage.

Depends really. There’s tons of tribunal decisions and legal cases you can read on where some choices/job specs were found to be illegal discriminatory hiring practices.