women

Showing 3 posts tagged women

A New Cycle

Menstruation is fertile for innovation. A cycle as old as time is finally getting more attention from the next wave of entrepreneurs. 

The Global Tampon Market was projected at $2.58B in 2015. It doesn’t take personal experience to recognize the large market, but the rise of a diverse set of entrepreneurs innovating in this area is a win for women everywhere.

There are a number of entrepreneurs reimagining products in women’s health from fertility to fitness, mental health to healthcare. Here are a few of the breakout companies bringing new ideas to an ancient problem:

The Flex Company - Positioned as a product to use while having sex on your period, this product is a tampon alternative. You’ll rarely find a woman who loves existing period but, with few alternatives, it’s exciting to see new innovation. Newly launched, sign up for their first pre-order now. CEO Lauren is on a mission to create a healthier, eco and empowering product. 

THINX - Unhappy with tampons? Thinx offers underwear so you can skip them all together. Thinx offers a range of underwear in styles for women on their periods. Side note: In a society where we don’t “talk about periods” cheers to Thinx for placing ads in the NYC Subways, a public place to share a period product. CEO Miki is a pioneer in bringing periods into public conversation. 

Clue - Period tracking for menstruation is one of the oldest forms of cycle management. Clue takes it a step further by providing tracking for a bigger picture of your health, from energy levels to predicting pms symptoms. The app can be used for promoting or preventing fertility, monitoring your cycle, and tracking your holistic physical and mental health. CEO Ida is a visionary for women’s health.

I love to see entrepreneurs solving problems they’re uniquely positioned to solve in industries underserved by innovation. Nearly a third of the population will have a regular reminder of this problem. I’m excited to see continued innovation. 

I realize that I am blessed to have been born in the late 1950s instead of the early 1930s, as my mother was, or the beginning of the 20th century, as my grandmothers were. My mother built a successful and rewarding career as a professional artist largely in the years after my brothers and I left home—and after being told in her 20s that she could not go to medical school, as her father had done and her brother would go on to do, because, of course, she was going to get married. I owe my own freedoms and opportunities to the pioneering generation of women ahead of me—the women now in their 60s, 70s, and 80s who faced overt sexism of a kind I see only when watching Mad Men, and who knew that the only way to make it as a woman was to act exactly like a man. To admit to, much less act on, maternal longings would have been fatal to their careers.

Magazine - Why Women Still Can’t Have It All - The Atlantic

The first modern women in the United States who dealt with sexism in the workplace, discrimination and lack of opportunities, those women, those brave women, are still alive. Thank them. 

(And yes, this is an important note from the author: I am well aware that the majority of American women face problems far greater than any discussed in this article. I am writing for my demographic—highly educated, well-off women who are privileged enough to have choices in the first place.)