“…the first commercial cup was devised by Leona W. Chalmers, a onetime Broadway star who created it because she wanted to wear her costumes of white silk without fear.”
– NY Times
The modern menstrual cup has been around since the 1930s. One of the earliest menstrual cup brands available was the Tass-ette cup, a natural rubber cup designed and promoted by Leona Chalmers. Chalmers was a talented singer and actress turned author and one of the pioneers of the modern menstrual cup.
Who Invented the Menstrual Cup?
Leona Chalmers was always destined for a life different than what was expected of a woman coming of age at the turn of the 20th century. She was born 1883 in Lexington, KY and her family later moved to Cincinnati, Ohio. Her father was a business owner and Leona later wrote that in her family was a long line of doctors on her maternal side. In Cincinnati, Leona Watson studied music with private tutors and set her sights on a future as an opera singer.
In 1905 Leona moved to New York to pursue that career. To fund her trip she borrowed against her family’s piano, fully expecting to quickly earn enough to save it in time. “I put up my piano for fifty dollars to get the money to come to New York. I thought the managers were just waiting for someone like me. I found out they were not.”
Instead, the piano, bought for $450 by her father, was collected when the debt was not paid. “There’s no going home now.” was Watson’s response.
Most of what is written about Leona Chalmers focuses on her ties to the menstrual cup as the designer and one-woman marketer for Tass-ette. Often credited as the “inventor” of the menstrual cup, Leona herself would tell you otherwise and does in her own book, crediting other early menstrual cups as inspiration. Yet her inventive entrepreneurial spirit and passion for the promoting the cup give her full rights to own the legacy of the “mother of the menstrual cup movement.”
Her books and ad campaigns featuring bold statements like “I have found the answer to a problem as old as Eve” put Leona Watson Chalmers in the history books. Ironic, considering a theatre critic is quoted saying about Leona Watson, the actress “…a third – rate player named Leona Watson, who was never heard of afterwards… was endorsed as an actress of almost Bernhardt proportions.” Leona Watson had a fairly accomplished professional career before she began her entreprenuerial journey that made sure she was, in fact, heard of afterwards.
In 1909 she performed in The Climax on Broadway. She cited her stage costume, a white silk gown, and hectic performing schedule as a road performer as inspiration for a better period product that wouldn’t leak or show bulges under her costume on the stage. Watson repeatedly referred to her product and tampons as the top choice of actresses. Before the invention of tampons she let on that the stage secret to managing periods was inserting wads of gauze or cotton. She had several other performing credits before and after The Climax, but that was the highest her star reached.
Leona Watson married Charles Chalmers in 1911 in New York City. After the birth of her daughter in 1914, also named Leona, Chalmers decided to leave the life of a traveling actress behind. She lived in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter for many years. Her husband ended his own life in 1932.
In 1935 Leona filed a patent for her menstrual cup design. Shortly after she moved to NYC where she established a new life and new business.
Instead of leaving a lasting legacy through her singing talent, Leona Watson Chalmers is most remembered thanks to Tassette Inc, the company that later produced her cup designs as Tassette and Tassaway after she sold her patents to an investor, Robert Oreck.
Presumably, as a clever guerilla marketing tactic, Leona Chalmers wrote two books on “feminine hygiene.” Chalmers also wrote a free pamphlet on the subject of the menstrual cup Tass-ette, titled “The Conquest of Feminine Discomfort” that was mailed free of charge as a way to advertise the product. She placed ads in smaller magazines for the Tass-ette, her menstrual cup, alongside her pamphlet or book. Chalmers relied on the assistance of doctors to write her books and was not a trained medical professional or licensed doctor. She did divulge that there were many doctors in her family, and this had some influence in how conversations were handled in the home she grew up in. According to Chalmers, her interest in the subject of “feminine hygiene” stemmed from her upbringing. One of 5 daughters, her mother candidly sat each down at an early age to discuss “intimate matters in such a delicate, but frankly wholesome manner, that all fear and curiousity of what was to come (menstruation and sex) completely vanished.” She wrote about medical issues perhaps too embarrassing for readers of her books to discuss in “polite company” with a very modern frankness she inherited from her mother. In later ads for her book she is falsely referred to as a “doctor’s wife” to presumably give weight to her expertise.
Chapters in both books included “Displacement of the Pelvic Organs,” “Menstrual Pain,” “Constipation,” “Social Diseases,” “Vaginal Hygiene,” “Douche Appliances and Equipment,” “The Conquest of Menstrual Discomfort,” and one chapter titled “DON’T’S” in all capital letters.
It should be noted that while a lot of her advice rings as true today as it did then, there were many outdated and disproven recommendations in her books. Much of her books spent considerable time on intimate cleanliness (douching) in a way that was tied directly to patriarchal ideals. She warned women that if they failed to clean themselves inside and out their husbands would leave them. This sentiment was shared by many brands of the day – Lysol promoted their vaginal douche with scare-tactic marketing warning of the same outcome. We now know that the vaginal environment is self-cleaning and that douching or insertables designed to “clean” the vagina do more harm than good.
In other sections, Chalmers had me in her corner. In regards to using a menstrual cup or tampons as a virgin she explained to her readers that “… a broken hymen is not an indication that the girl is not a virgin. This tissue can be ruptured from various other causes besides intercourse.” This question remains one of the most frequently asked in my own work as a menstrual cup educator thanks to a lack of sexual education and intentional incorrect education about the hymen and virginity.
New century, same benefits
“The menstrual cup has a number of advantages over tampons, namely: ( 1) No part of the cup is exposed … even the removal tip is worn comÂpletely CONCEALED within the vulva. (2) NorÂmally, it does not touch the cervix (mouth of the womb). Therefore, it cannot obstruct the free flow of the blood from the organ. (3) Quite a few women with prolapsus report success when it is used as a combination container and womb support. The disposal problem is eliminated. (5) The can be no possibility of odor, and no irritation between the thighs. (6) Blood clots cannot slip by the cup, as sometimes happens in the use of tampon (7) It is the MOST ECONOMICAL method. One cup is equal to a year’s supply of any other product used for this purpose. It can be worn in anticipation of the period without extra cost to the user. The woman buys but once a year. The cup is so small it may be carried in one’s purse or any traveling bag. (8) Menstrual blood may be measured. (9) No waste or residue is left in the vaginal passage.”
Woman’s Personal Hygiene, p . 144-145 Leona Chalmers 1943
Odor free. Comfortable. All day wear. Freedom. Beach days even on your period. Bulge-free dresses. Almost all of the points made by Chalmers are selling points menstrual cup brands and advocates use in modern times. The cup was the modern solution, but she was also nearly as complimentary about the new tampon for many of the same selling points. The tampon and menstrual cup were both new inventions in 1937 when Chalmers’ first book was published. In her books she often mentioned that actresses and nurses used tampons, calling back to her own lived experience as a performer. Her 1943 book even included instructions for how to make your own DIY tampons, a trick she likely picked up on Broadway.
You have to remember that in the 1930s and 1940s sanitary napkins were still pinned into place or worn with a belt. They were also bulkier than pads today, lacking the compression technologies to put more absorbency into less space. Adhesive-backed pads weren’t invented until the 1970s. Everything about the pads of the day were inferior – their placement wasn’t as tight against the vulva leading to more frequent leaks that could leak onto clothes as well. Using internal protection of any kind was a huge leap in comfort and mobility for a population now entering a new era of both more form-fitting fashions and freedom.
As one of the first people, and arguably the most successful, to bring attention to the cup in her books, Chalmers helped shape the language and instructions that would be used going forward by future menstrual cup brands. Chalmers’ 1943 edition of “Woman’s Personal Hygiene” included photographs showing the steps for folding a Tassette cup. After reading both editions of Chalmer’s book I found myself wondering if we have been wrong about why the C-Fold is called such. My assumption has always been that the C-Fold was named because it is in the shape of a C. And while that makes perfect sense and is likely still true, could it also be that it was named “C” because the earliest published and referenced fold guide labeled a folded cup as “C?” We should add that to the menstrual cup lore.
Based on surveys mailed to Tassette users and customers Chalmers wrote this in her second book:
“It was both interesting and enlightenÂing to learn that the longer the cup had been used, the more satisfactory were the results. Patience, therefore, seems to play an extremely important part in getting accustomed to its application and use.”
Tampons are still the norm
So if tampons and cups were invented at roughly the same time, why are tampons the more popular choice and cups still fighting for viability in the mainstream? Speaking about the menstrual cup and Leona Chalmers, Harry Finley, the curator and researcher behind the Museum of Menstruation, was quoted in the NY Times as saying “Wartime rubber shortages put her company out of business..“ At the beginning of World War II the natural rubber supply from Southeast Asia was cut off and priority would be given to products needed to support wartime efforts.
Perhaps were it not for that break in production and sales menstrual cups would be the mainstream choice and tampons would be the smaller section on drug store shelves. Tampax and other tampon companies were able to market and grow while Tassette was on hiatus.
Leona Chalmers gave it three tries in total but none of those efforts were a significant commercial success. The Tass-ette cup by Davol Rubber was sold in the late 1930s through the early 1940s. In the late 1950s she sold her two patents to an investor who started Tassette Inc. This company sold another version of her rubber cup in the 1950s and early 1960s. Tassette employed NY-based advertising company Weiss and Geller. With their help, Tassette was the first “feminine product” to air radio spots. Tassette even placed the first billboard on Times Square for a period product; Leona Chalmers saw her product as the perfect solution for modern actresses and her tendency to advertise in showbusiness magazines and on Broadway is an endearing callback to her undying love of the stage.
The third and final attempt – a disposable menstrual cup called the Tassaway, was the biggest and most commercially successful attempt. Tassaway existed for a small time, from 1969 through about 1973. This time, Tassette Inc. company employed the NY-based ad company J. Walter Thompson Company to help them launch a wide-spread ad campaign in both magazines and on television. Millions of Tassaway cups were manufactured but the company faced multiple financial issues that lead their downfall. When the company ended they still owed the ad company millions.
The benefits of a cup were always there; with modern materials and added design adjustments, the menstrual cup now comes in every shape, size, firmness, and length possible to meet every need. So many options exist that it takes a quiz for many to pinpoint just what they need. In the span of 90 years, the cup went from 3 brands to 1 brand, to 0 brands, to 1 brand, to 5, to the present day number of 200 or more. The initial reasons to use a menstrual cup according to Leona Chalmers were their economy, comfort, and convenience. If you ask new cup users today why they switched many will now cite their sustainability as the catalyst – a direct response to the waste tampons and pads create in a single-use society.
It’s easy to draw a line directly from Leona Chalmers and the Tass-ette/Tassette, to the Keeper Cup and former Tassette customer Lou Crawford, to the DivaCup and former Keeper distributors Francine Chalmers and Carinne Chalmers-Saini. Without Keeper, we wouldn’t have DivaCup. Without Tass-ette, we wouldn’t have Keeper. All roads lead directly to Leona Chalmers and her efforts to educate women and menstruators on their modern period care options through her pamphlets and books.
Further reading on the history of menstrual cups and discs:
Why has it taken so long for the menstrual cup to go mainstream? PSMag by Natalie Shure
The whole idea might seem a little strange to you Technology Stories by Dr. Kelly O Donnell
Menstrual Cups at age 66 begin to make up for lost time NY Times (gift link while available) Donald G. McNeil Jr.
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