My own father was a jerk about our periods (and everything about me, my mom, and my sister's femininity). He controlled the house's money and grocery shopping and he wouldn't buy us feminine products when I was a teenager. Sometimes my grandmother (his mom, who knew he was an idiot) would sneak us money for pads or otherwise relied on my mom to squirrel away some money (from where I do not know), sneak out at some point and acquire some cheap pads. I remember many times stuffing my panties with rolled up socks ca. age 14. It was horrible. Then my friend told me her dad would go out and buy her pads and I couldn't believe other peoples' dads would do that for them... So sometimes the shame begins long before the work place...
I loved your post and it reminded me of how nice it is to be an adult woman who no longer gives any f*cks about what people think about my period. It's so nice to be in control now, but we need to remember that not everyone is so fortunate.
On a lighter note, this post reminded me of a certain Broad City episode where Ilana uses period-stained pants to avoid getting searched by TSA:) I love those girls.