Flinders, M. orcid.org/0000-0003-3585-9010 and Lowery, G. orcid.org/0000-0003-1864-902X (2023) Period politics and policy change: the taxation of menstrual products in the United Kingdom, 1996–2021. Contemporary British History, 37 (2). pp. 238-265. ISSN 1361-9462
Abstract
How, when and why do policies change? This article engages with this question through a focus on the taxation of menstrual products in the United Kingdom from its initial emergence as an issue in 1996 through to the eventual abolition of the ‘tampon tax’ on 1 January 2021. Despite the significance of this topic for broader debates concerning gender inequality, political efficacy and social change it is not one that has been the focus of close historical analysis. The research presented in this article fills this gap in the existing research base and reveals (inter alia): (i) the ebb-and-flow of the issue-attention cycle; (ii) the grating of domestic pressures against international obligations; (iii) incremental policy change in an attempt to assuage campaigners; (iv) the co-option of ‘period poverty’ as a strategic and symbolic issue by Brexit campaigners; (v) and the eventual resolution of the issue a quarter of a century after it was first raised. As such the politics of policy change vis-à-vis the taxation of menstrual products in the United Kingdom fits within a number of broader debates concerning: how, when and why policies change; the complexities of multi-level governance; and interpretations of policy success and policy failure.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. |
Keywords: | Tampon tax; gender equality; period politics; policy-making; Brexit |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 29 Aug 2023 10:30 |
Last Modified: | 29 Aug 2023 10:30 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Informa UK Limited |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1080/13619462.2023.2184804 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:202762 |
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Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0