The Missing PPE: Women in Construction Need Period Products on Every Worksite with UNICORN

Recently on LinkedIn, UNICORN's Co-Founder, Thyme Sullivan, shared a story that struck a chord: a first job spent driving a delivery truck with no access to period products anywhere — not in the warehouse, not in the truck, not even in the supermarket backrooms along the route.

It’s an experience that too many women know all too well. Caught off guard, left without options, and forced to choose between leaving work, improvising, or facing the quiet shame of asking for help.

That post sparked a larger conversation: if we’ve accepted protective equipment, safety standards, and wellness programs as essential, why do we still overlook this most basic need?

The Trades Can’t Wait

As highlighted in the post, this isn’t just an office issue — it’s even more urgent on job sites. At a women-in-construction conference, when asked how many had ever been on a site without access to period care, every single hand went up.

The stories were consistent: lost time, added stress, and the message — loud and clear — that these spaces weren’t designed with them in mind.

It’s a gap hiding in plain sight. We treat hard hats, gloves, and steel-toe boots as standard PPE. Period products should be no different.

A Simple Solution

Imagine a small dispenser in a porta potty, a site trailer, or a restroom stall. Sleek, easy to install, easy to refill, always stocked with products women actually want to use.

That’s what UNICORN delivers:

• Workplace essentials, not perks — free dispensers in every stall, right next to the toilet paper.

• Products that meet today’s standards — organic, sustainable, plant-based, and high quality.

• Minimal effort for worksites — dispensers that take minutes to install and seconds to restock.

A Call to Action

The LinkedIn post closed with an urgent reminder: period products aren’t luxuries — they’re essentials.

For the trades, the message couldn’t be clearer:

• If we want to retain more women in construction, we need worksites built with them in mind.

• If we want them to thrive, not just survive, we need to close the gap on the basics.

• If we want the future of work to be inclusive, we need to make essentials as standard as PPE.

The missing PPE is right in front of us. It’s time every site, every stall, every company fixed it.