From Bullets to Blood: A Case Study

Military Technology and its impact on Civilian Life

Pre World War I: What did women use for sanitary products?

newspaper

ragswool

Sea Sponge

Birdseye cloth

knit pad

The Before• Prior to the First World War, there were few

commercially made feminine hygiene products, certainly not disposable

• Women made their own sanitary napkins out of materials available to them at home

• Few domestic or medical manuals had information about the best materials or designs for sanitary napkins

• Knowledge of materials and folding designs was an oral culture, passed from older females to younger females in the family

The Turning Point

• World War I 1914-1918• Was supposed to “be over

by Christmas”• Advances in military

weapons, particularly the machine gun, caused casualties on a scale previously unknown

• Bandages were made from 100% cotton—expensive to make and couldn’t keep up with demand

Kimberly-Clark

• Paper mill company started in 1872 in Wisconsin

• Developed a more absorbent substitute for cotton, called Cellucotton, from wood pulp

• Made bandages cheap enough to throw away

Crafty Nurses !

• American nurses in France begin to use the cellucotton bandages as disposable sanitary napkins

The After:Cellucotton Products

Company• Subsidiary set up by

Kimberly-Clark for the manufacturing of Kotex (from [K]otten-like texture) because they didn’t want to “ruin (the company’s) good reputation” by bringing menstruation to a public forum 1920

I don’t get it…

• K-C had trouble selling product

• Couldn’t get magazines to take their advertising

• Women were reluctant to buy product because it meant asking a (most likely male) clerk for a box even though K-C invented the word Kotex so women would not have to say “sanitary napkin”

Your Assignment

• Pick a partner you can work with

• Come up with a print advertisement and marketing strategy for Kotex

• Assignment is due: (insert date here)

• Will be presented to class