This week’s spotlight woman is Jayne Dunn, a Labour Councillor for Sheffield and ambassador for period poverty and menopause awareness.
Jayne also is supporting Your Sheffield’s campaign No Period Left Behind. You can find more about this on our campaign page and our Instagram.
She is also running for Sheffield City MP, alongside Eddie Izzard, Mike Buckley, Rizwana Lana, Paul Mason and Abtisam Mohamed.
Last week, Jayne led a notion that commited the council to tackling the stigmas surrounding period poverty and menopause in Sheffield.
Jayne Dunn told us: “The normalisation of talking about periods is such an important step forward. I suffered from endimetriosis and was suffering in agony for decades. When it was eventually investigated, they found it wrapped all around my colon.
“Because it was a woman’s issue I hid it. The menopause liberated me, now I can even stand on my head in yoga. That wouldn’t have been a possibilty all those years I was in pain.”
Jayne is a single mum, a domestic abuse survivor and as a female presenting public figure, she is no stranger to online trolls.
She said: “I’ve had death threats, i’ve had people threaten to rape me. Women have it tough.
“Safe routes are really important to me and I would really like night buses for that very reason. I think we should be able to go out and look as hot as you want to! It’s not an invitation.
“I’ve been told in the past ‘oh you wear a bit too much makeup’ or ‘don’t you think you dress a little bit too…’ And I just think for goodness sake you wouldn’t say that to a man would you?”
And it’s not just her appearance that gets people critiquing, even her running for Sheffield Central MP was a point of contention for some.
She said: “Somebody came up to me saying ‘Don’t you think you’re too old to do this because you know, you must be menopausal’ and I just thought that was disgusting.
“Women are scared to admit they’re going through the menopause because they are worried about it affecting their careers.”
In response to the controversy surrounding Eddie Izzard running for MP, Jayne contacted all the candidates to make a statement of support for Eddie and her running as a woman candidate.
Jayne said: ” I thought we have got to do something here because I won’t have anybody being victimised. I always speak out and you know I thought if this costs me the nomination it cost me the nomination. I can’t compromise my values in that.”
