After Months of Protests, Tampons Will No Longer Be a ‘Luxury Good’ in France [View all]

http://www.takepart.com/article/2015/12/14/tampon-tax-france?cmpid=tpdaily-eml-2015-12-14

When French lawmakers voted down an amendment in October that would have slashed a tax on tampons and other women’s hygiene items, activists took to the streets of Paris to protest what they saw as an unfair charge on products that are essential to half the country’s population.

Now the government seems to have had a change of heart—and feminist groups are claiming victory.Following months of outrage, France’s National Assembly on Friday ruled in favor of reducing the country’s tax on tampons and sanitary pads from 20 percent to 5.5 percent, Agence France-Presse reported. Despite opposition from lawmakers who argued the country would lose millions of dollars a year without the tax, Prime Minister Manuel Valls supported the decision, calling it a “step in the right direction.” While the tax wasn’t cut entirely, the lowered rate is equivalent to the French national consumption tax levied on non-luxury items including food, water, nonalcoholic beverages, and even books.

Taxes on women’s hygiene products have increasingly spurred protests around the world this year. Many activists reason that the tax financially punishes women, who on average earn about a quarter less than their male counterparts globally, according to a United Nations report released in April. Last month, a group of students in the United Kingdom publicly opposed the country’s 5 percent tax on tampons and other women’s sanitary products by “free bleeding”—forgoing tampons or pads—on the steps of Parliament.