If you haven’t recently watched the Vlogger “Dear Alyne” rant about this, read on. Being a woman is expensive. The ugly truth we accept and carry on. The pink tax is just another facet of it. It is exactly as it sounds. The extra amount/tax you pay for pink products/products meant for women. It’s a tax that about half of the population is subject to. And they probably aren’t even aware of it. So not only do we women make less (women earn 79% of what men do) but we also have to pay more.

Think about it this way: You’re paying extra to play a made-up role that society pays you less for inhabiting” – Danielle Kurtzleben, Journalist

It’s a Load of Lies 

There has been a lot of research on the pink tax that found that overall, women were paying more than men 42% of the time. The pricing disparity starts when girls are young and continues through their lifetime! The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs released a study comparing the prices of over 800 products. The goal of the study was to estimate the price differences male and female consumers face when buying the same types of products.

The result: Products for women/girls cost 7% more than comparable products for men/boys.

7% more for toys and accessories

4% more for children’s clothing

8% more for adult clothing

13% more for personal care products

8% more for senior/home health care products

Amount? About $1,351 more a year in extra costs!

Here are some charts to make it clearer

Self-care products

Pink-tax

These are the kinds of things you buy in a drug store, razors, shaving cream, deodorant, face cleanser.

Toys

pink-tax-toys

Unfortunately, the pink tax starts at birth. If you have daughters, you’re probably already aware of this price disparity. Across the six product categories of toys considered during the study, the girls’ items were consistently more expensive than the ones for boys.The largest price discrepancy was in helmets and knee/elbow pad. The girls’ were priced a whopping 13% higher.

What Can You Do?

  1. The best way to avoid this is to simply buy the men’s version of certain products and to do some homework and look around for the best prices on things like dry cleaning.
  2. Research and buy products of companies that defy this non-sensical thinking and fight against the pink tax. (Boxed, Snowe, Harry’s etc.)
  3. You could also do what one women’s rights groups in France have done. They started a siteand uploaded photos of products that had unequal pricing. Public shaming companies sometimes has a positive impact. Putting them on blast through social media will often garner faster results that writing letters and signing petitions.

Sorry to deliver more bad news to the ladies among us, this tax is unfair and awareness about it can help you avoid it.

 

For more Education articles click here

By: Jasmine Sharif @stylehappysmiles