An Executive Voices Blog by Rachel Donovan Geller and Kaity Potak

If you are the type to pay attention to the cultural shifts surrounding women’s health, you may have noticed that periods are everywhere lately—in sports, in film, in fashion, and in education. Scotland recently passed legislation making menstrual care freely available. This summer, the NYTimes did a round-up of the eight best period underwear (specifically underwear) of the year. Menstruation has even earned an annual awareness day.

The value of this normalization is hard to overstate.

It’s a huge deal. Especially for people like us. We are Rachel Donovan Geller and Kaity Potak, and we started a company called MOONS to help make the menstrual experience better, from product design to language to education to—and this is where the licensing industry comes in—access.

Because, despite all this destigmatizing progress, the glistening bathrooms of our cool-kid NYC agency offices were still woefully lacking when it came to period care. The horrid stainless steel, quarter-eating machines of yesteryear had been removed, and in their place? Nothing. No basket of pads. No vase of tampons. Not even a half-hearted HR survey about what bathroom amenities the team might enjoy.

What an enormous lost opportunity. In a time when office culture is in flux, when what workers expect from their corporate employers is shifting, when benefits packages have to get creative, and when lack of respect for women’s bodies is in the daily news, not having a thoughtful, considered amenity strategy for your corporate bathrooms is more than a “miss,” it’s the early days of a PR problem.

We stock toilet paper in bathrooms without thinking twice. We see lactation rooms in new offices as both a practical necessity and a sign of respect to working mothers. Incorporating menstrual care into HR benefits packages answers both a basic healthcare need and signals deep respect for menstruating staff. It’s the perfect complement to offerings updated with mental health resources, fitness packages, and expanded family support.

In addition to providing flexible models that let you stock your public restrooms with menstrual care, this growing category also includes product subscriptions for menstruating employees (where opportunities around licensing will only increase).

The moment for supporting your menstruating staff is here. (And pay attention, because paid menstrual leave is coming next.) It’s a moment you don’t want to miss.

Rachel Donovan Geller and Kaity Potak are the Co-Founders of MOONS, a menstrual health startup based in New York’s Hudson Valley. You can contact them at hello@ourmoons.com