About
The model's story can be a bit different in regards to the stories for the agent and system model. With the system model, the story can be described as a story in which every American female goes through on a daily basis in regards to menstrual products whether they have access or not. There are many factors that go into whether or not a female has access to menstrual products, and it can also change very quickly depending on policies and events happening in America such as the rising unemployment rates in America today. In the agent model, it's more of a story that users witness how period poverty as well as period stigma can affect women as young as eight years old. It's a story where the user watches as the child practically loses her education on menstrual health due to the lack of resources for that type of education, and goes on to grow up at risk of becoming unemployed, homeless, and even die if their lack of education on menstrual hygiene/women's health causes them to turn to alternatives that are dangerous.
What were the questions you planned for your model to help answer?
1. How long will it take for a woman to experience period poverty? 2. Can any woman experience period poverty even if she is employed and has a stable housing situtation? 3. How much would mortality rates go down if the tampon tax were to be removed?
What were your hypotheses about the answers to the questions when you started?
1. My hypothesis for how long it would take for a woman to experience period poverty varies from if the woman is unemployed/homeless or if she is not. I think women who are currently unemployed and living in poverty/homeless will experience period poverty as short as 2 months. A woman who is employed may not experience period poverty for many years if situations come by like the female loses her job then I think she will experience period poverty. 2. My hypothesis is that a woman’s mortality rate would decrease if the tampon tax were to be eliminated because in some cases, the tax is the deciding factor on whether or not females can buy the products they need. 3. Yes I think so as situations can change and not one woman is secure in her career or something could happen in which their situations could change easily so anyone can experience period poverty.
What results and behaviors did you observe from using your model?
Behaviors I saw in the system model was that it seemed sometimes some factors didn't affect much in regards to access such as the death factor. I realized after a moment of thinking was that since I was modeling percentages with mortality based on the statistics for a White woman to die from cervical cancer being 4 percent. If I had modeled the system model based on a Black woman's experience with period poverty, it would be a much different story for mortality rates since their rates are 10%. In the agent model I didn't see many results that I wasn't expecting, but I was seeing that sometimes when the females wallets were decreasing, they slowly went to the grocery store more than work which I thought even though agent models are random that it could visualize the amount of times women have to go to the grocery store on a weekly or even daily basis in order to get things for their household.
Did your observations match your expectations? If not, why do you think they did not? What did this teach you about the topic you were modeling?
My observations matched my expectations. Due to the amount of research I put into the project and the amount of prior knowledge I had to the topic prior to modeling it, my expectations matched what I observed with the rates the access to menstrual products slowly decreased. I knew 1 in 5 women in America was a lot for someone not to be having access to menstrual products as 33% is an astounding percentage of women who experience this on a monthly basis.
Did the results support your initial hypotheses? If not, what were your new hypotheses?
The results supported my initial hypotheses. The questions that were able to be answered in the model quickly showed the amount of time it would take for a female to experience period poverty varied on the situtation the woman was facing. With the system model the model could quickly show how much time and how many women were affected. With the agent model the model could be theorized to go through years of a females life when it starts with a girl going to school. With the second question on whether any female could experience period poverty could be answered by the graphs shown in the system model and the story unfolding in the agent model. No woman is truly safe from period poverty as situations can change and a woman who thinks she would never experience period poverty is suddenly experiencing it. Finally in regards to mortality rates, the tampon tax in the system model specifically shows how when menstrual products are labeled a luxury it is only a matter of time before a woman who cannot afford menstrual products gets desperate. It's a morbid fact, but it is an issue that is happening right now.
What changes did you have to make to your plans and your models to make your models more accurate and/or realistic?
Some questions had to be cut out from the project as time wouldn't allow me to truly show the effects of questions such as implementing better education programs could affect girls attendance of school, and how the number of children could affect someone buying menstrual products or food for their families as it was an obvious answer females with families would choose. I had to change the name also as I almost modeled a topic that was not intended. The project was first named "Period Stigma", but that couldn't be possible as period sigma refers to incorrect information about a females period that could cause period poverty.
What did you learn from working on this project?
When I first started the project, people I told told me that I was bold to model something so complex as period poverty. Was it a lot of work? Yes. A lot of the work put into the model was tough to do and it wasn't the easiest topic to model with the amount of research I had under my belt. However, I learned that since I was passionate about the project and grew to be more intrigued with the project I found myself not really minding the amount of work being put into the model. I learned a lot of factors such as the disproportionate disadvantage Black females have in regards to period poverty. It gave me a reality check from being a Black female if I were to ever experience period poverty and get sick from it, I was more at risk of dying than my white counterparts. I think the project was a learning point for everyone who sees this project. Period poverty and period stigma is rarely talked about, yet there are many organizations fighting to eradicate this.
Citations
Women cannot afford tampons and pads even in the United States
Period Taboos Around the World
Menstrual Silence
Homelessness and Periods
Why Talking about Menstruation is a Good Thing
Menstrual Shaming of Women in Prisons
The State of Period Poverty in the United States
Menstrual Life Cycles in Low and Middle-income Countries
Cervical Cancer Death Rates
Why Period Poverty is a Problem