Sweden's women conscripts get free feminine hygiene products

At the military barracks in Sweden's southern town of Karlskrona, as in those across the country, every bathroom is equipped with dispensers for tampons and sanitary pads supplied to women conscripts for free.

The initiative is aimed at improving gender equality in the military and combatting what is often called period poverty, when low-income women and girls struggle to pay for feminine hygiene products.

Along with Norway and Israel, Sweden is one of the few Western countries to have mandatory military service for both men and women, which it introduced in 2018. Sweden is the first country to offer free menstrual products to its conscripts.