What Did Women Do Before Tampons? A Brief History of Period Products – Cora

Early 1900s: belts and better absorption.

In the early 20th Century, women drove innovation around period care products, and the bloodiness of World War I had an unintended consequence. During the war, nurses in France noticed that the cellulose they used for bandages absorbed blood much better than cotton. They began using it for their menstrual blood. Kotex caught on and acquired leftover cellulose from the war to introduce a new, highly-absorbent disposable sanitary napkin. Just like Lister’s Towels, these napkins were disposable but not self-adhesive. That meant you had to attach the pad to a sanitary belt with hooks or safety pins.

To help women get over the perceived embarrassment of shopping for commercial feminine hygiene products, Kotex encouraged shop owners to leave the products on the counter along with a box where women could drop in money. That allowed them to avoid interacting with a shop clerk. By 1927, Modess came on the market as a competitor to Kotex and the industry started to pick up. “Although sanitary napkins weren’t a new idea,” Vostral explained, “having them manufactured and disposable was the innovation in the teens and ’20s.”

Being able to throw away a product also freed up a huge amount of time and labor for women, who no longer had to wash their bloody rags and clothes by hand. Vostral told me: “It’s not like there are electric washing machines in the 1915s to do that work. People are still ringing out their clothes. The disposability factor is a big thing.” It’s also expensive. “In my research, I came across a woman who even in the 1930s said her family had a meeting about whether to buy bread or Kotex. They chose Kotex,” Vostral said. “I don’t think it can be overstated, what it meant to have that freedom to not lug dirty laundry around or be able to be able to put a sanitary napkin in a bag or pocket.”