Equity and inclusion
Who our products are built for
Half the population menstruates. Almost none of them have the same body, the same flow, the same budget or the same information. A narrow range is a form of exclusion, so this is not a side policy for us. It is the business.
Why this matters here more than most
Intimate care is an industry that has historically designed for one imagined customer, then treated everyone else as an edge case.
A teenager having her first period, someone with heavy bleeding, a woman six weeks after giving birth and someone managing incontinence are not variations on a single need. They are different needs. When a company only serves the easiest of them, the rest are told, without anyone saying it, that their body is unusual.
Cost does the same thing more quietly. Reusable products save money over years and cost more on the day. That first price keeps them from exactly the people who would gain most.
So our commitment is not a statement about values in the abstract. It is a commitment about range, price, language and access.
What we commit to
In the product
To keep developing for needs that are usually underserved rather than only for the largest segment. Our range covers teenagers, heavy flow, the postpartum period and incontinence, alongside everyday use.
In access
To keep an organic disposable range for people who cannot or do not want to switch to reusables, and to fund access through partnerships where price is the barrier.
In how we talk
To use language that describes bodies accurately and without shame, in every market we sell in, and to keep our educational material free.
In our workplace
To recruit and pay fairly, to treat people equally regardless of background, and to make clear that anyone here can raise a concern without consequence.
On our website
To make femieko.com usable by people who navigate with a keyboard, a screen reader or a magnified display. We are working towards WCAG 2.2 level AA and testing as we go.
And to say so publicly
A commitment nobody can read is not a commitment. This page is reviewed and updated every year, and it records what has not happened as well as what has.
What this has meant so far
A range built around difference
Menstrual cups and discs, period underwear, menstrual swimwear, reusable pads, organic disposable pads, tampons and liners, first-period kits for teenagers, and products for the postpartum period and for incontinence. Different bodies, different stages of life, different preferences, without asking anyone to adapt to a single format.
Education that does not cost anything
Our Guide to the First Period is free to download and written to be understood by the person reading it, not by an adult explaining it. Partner schools receive sponsored teaching kits so that menstrual products can be shown and handled in class rather than described. Gymnasium Limmer in Hannover and Tårnby Junior High School in Denmark are two of them.
Access where price is the obstacle
One per cent of sales goes to Iele Sânziene to buy menstrual products for girls and women for whom a pad is not a given. Through Better Vision to Africa we send reusable cups to areas affected by period poverty, where a reusable product means access that does not run out. Reusable pads go into the SAMAS Cutia Bebelușului packages for new mothers. All of it is listed on our partnerships page.
Support that is not only about products
We contribute one per cent of revenue to FILIA, which works on women’s safety and against violence towards women.
What we have not done
- We have not completed an accessibility audit of our website. We have committed to WCAG 2.2 level AA as the target and testing is under way. Until it is finished we cannot claim the site meets it. If you hit a barrier on our site, tell us at hello@femieko.com and we will fix it and say when.
- We have not solved affordability. Donations reach some people. Pricing reaches everyone, and our pricing has not changed the underlying problem.
- Our range is broad but not complete. There are needs within menstrual and intimate health we do not yet serve well, and we would rather hear about them than guess.
- We are a team of around ten. We do not have a diversity function, a formal programme or published workforce statistics, and at this size, published statistics would identify individuals rather than describe a pattern. What we have instead is a small team and a direct route to raise a problem.
Who is answerable, and how we listen
The Administrator of FemiEko Group SRL is accountable for this commitment and reports on it once a year to the shareholders, together with the concerns received during the year.
Most of what we learn comes from customers, from the schools we work with and from the organisations we support. If something we make, or something we have written, excludes you or gets your body wrong, that is the most useful thing you can tell us. You can do it by name or anonymously through our concerns procedure, or simply reply to any email we send you.
