{"id":1083279,"date":"2026-07-11T19:47:31","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:47:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1083279\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T19:47:31","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T19:47:31","slug":"waitrose-makes-major-change-to-products-for-inclusivity-uk-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1083279\/","title":{"rendered":"Waitrose makes major change to products for inclusivity | UK | News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Waitrose has rebranded its &#8220;feminine care&#8221; section for inclusivity after receiving a complaint. The sanitary products section will no longer use the female term after a complaint said that &#8220;not all people who have periods are women&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Critics branded the change &#8220;disgraceful&#8221; while <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Waitrose\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/waitrose\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Waitrose<\/a> defended the move, explaining that the label was changed to reflect a new product range, which included incontinence pads for men.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint allegedly said: \u201cNot all people who have periods are women,\u201d in a document published by James Esses, a gender campaigner and <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Conservative Party\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/conservative-party\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Conservative councillor.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>It went on: \u201cTrans men and some non-binary people have periods. The category also includes products used for incontinence. Yet the language we use still suggests that these products are exclusively for women and femininity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo some people, that might seem like a small detail. To me, it isn\u2019t. Words matter because people matter. This matters to me because inclusion should never be conditional or performative. If we say everyone is welcome, then our language should reflect everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Waitrose\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/latest\/waitrose\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A manager at Waitrose<\/a> agreed that \u201cthe term \u2018feminine care\u2019 does not accurately describe the products within the category and that this should be changed\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that the internal naming comes from the title given to the layout group so I will ask that our range and space manager and buyer work to get this name updated as soon as possible,\u201d the manager said.<\/p>\n<p>The Conservative candidate for High Barnet Mr Esses said the change was \u201cdisgraceful\u201d. He has been openly critical of gender fluidity, having been <a data-link-tracking=\"InArticle|Link\" title=\"Shame of thousands caught cheating at university\" href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/news\/uk\/480961\/Scotland-Shame-of-thousands-caught-cheating-at-university\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">expelled from university<\/a> after he campaigned against the government\u2019s proposed ban on conversion practices.<\/p>\n<p>He claimed: &#8220;A whistleblower from Waitrose has just leaked an internal document to me, in which senior leaders have pledged to remove the name \u2018feminine care\u2019 from sanitary products, on the basis that \u2018not all people who have periods are women\u2019. Disgraceful.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A spokesman for Waitrose said: \u201cWe\u2019re changing the name simply because \u2018feminine products\u2019 no longer reflects the product range, which now includes incontinence pads for men.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Waitrose has rebranded its &#8220;feminine care&#8221; section for inclusivity after receiving a complaint. The sanitary products section will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1083280,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[6],"tags":[51,5566,30702,12535,296309,16,15,1798],"class_list":["post-1083279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gender","tag-gender-identity","tag-inclusivity","tag-sanitary-products","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-waitrose"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116903074093196595","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1083279"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1083279\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1083280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1083279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1083279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1083279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}