The Pink Tax
With modern feminist and equality movements there seem to be people creating solutions everywhere you look, but there also seem to be more and more problems as well. Most of us are aware of the wage gap in our country, but there is a neglected infection that continues to discreetly plague women daily, specifically their wallets. I’m talking about the pink tax. The pink tax is a recurring experience of gender based price discrimination that women face everyday, and it’s not new, it’s been able to be traced back to the 1930’s. While it can involve actual tax, like the fact that menstrual products are taxed in 34 states and not included in the exemption for “necessities’’ like groceries, prescriptions, and even in some circumstances clothes, it’s not limited to literal tax. It can also be referring to price inequalities for items that are marketed towards women. This overlooked obstruction, accompanied by other sexist microaggressions and biases, nurture a silent killer which is slowly draining women’s financial resources.
The New York City Department of Consumer Affairs produced a gender pricing study by the title of “From Cradle to Cane: The Cost of Being a Female Consumer,” and it outlines the investigation undergone by the department that exposes gender based pricing in New York City. Their findings proved that not only do women experience these price inequalities, but even little girls have to bear this burden. The study concluded that not only do women spend “8 percent more for adult clothing” and “13 percent more for personal care products,” but both parents and their children also have to suffer the consequences of needing to spend “7 percent more for toys and accessories” (New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, 2018). Little girls are introduced to this unfair world of sexism and discrimination far too young,
Back in November, 2018, NPR released an episode of their podcast series “Planet Money” with Karen Duffin and Stacey Vanek Smith called “The Problem with the Pink Tax,” in which they explore this exact study. During this podcast both women talked about how during that week they went into the Walgreens in Times Square, New York City, with the intention of confirming or denying this study.
“VANEK SMITH: We have to look at the price per unit here.
DUFFIN: Oh, unit price. Men’s razors are 59.9 cents per razor.
VANEK SMITH: OK. The price per unit for the Daisy Razor, which is..” …
“VANEK SMITH: Price per unit’s $1.25.
DUFFIN: That is infuriating. That’s double. Oh, my God.”
In addition to validating this study these women drew attention to an area in which the pink tax badly affects personal hygiene products. An article by The Financial Post shows that “Women pay an average of 43 cents more on toiletries” (Shaw, 2016). The Canadian newspaper revealed that women pay an average of $5.02 for shaving creams and lotions, compared to men who paid an average of $4.26. The article also corroborated the gender based pricing on men and women’s razors and even raised the stakes naming razors the second most price unequal toiletry, just coming up short behind deodorant. Women paid an average of $8.63 for razors and $10.42 for deodorant, whereas men paid an average of $5.30 and $6.85. Although some can argue that women’s products, like razors, can have pleasant, but unnecessary scents that add to the cost, a raspberry scented handle can’t be all that’s to blame for dollars worth of upcharging or a doubled unit price.
Undeniably the pink tax hits personal care and hygiene products the hardest, but there is so much pressure from society to buy more, specific, and expensive products so we can fit whatever mold has taken shape at the moment. These two things conjoined create a very toxic and costly atmosphere. An article by The Washington Post investigated why women buy and wear more personal products and touched upon research conducted by Dr. Jaclyn Wong of the University of Chicago and Dr. Andrew Penner of the University of California Irvine. “The research showed that attractive people tended to earn higher salaries. But that wasn’t all. Their research suggested that grooming — practices such as applying makeup and styling hair and clothing — was actually what accounted for nearly all of the salary differences for women of varying attractiveness. For men, grooming didn’t make as much of a difference.” This phenomenon is called the “halo effect,” which is the tendency to associate positive characteristics with attractive people. Therefore women can lose money due to favoritism based on sexism in the workplace, and also lose excess money on buying the products to which they will attempt to appeal to that sexist favoritism.
Now that you’ve become aware of the vile parasite that is the pink tax, if you’re a man, you can’t simply now turn your back on obvious commonly occurring gender discrimination, and ladies, you can’t go back to your life knowing your living everyday losing unwarranted amounts of money. So, what can you do? Here are a couple of ways, short of writing an actual piece of legislation, you can combat the pink tax. The first and easiest way is just to buy unisex products. If pink products are going to cost more, don’t buy them! You can also support companies that have publicly taken a stand against the pink tax. Next time you need a self-care day, instead of your local spa head to the European Wax center who launched the #AxThePinkTax campaign back in 2018. Lastly, a really productive way to fight the pink tax is to get in contact with local legislators through telephone or email, like California Representative Jackie Speier who, in April 2019, supported the Pink Tax Repeal Act.
The chosen topic of this argument couldn’t help but pull the memory of my cousin Margaret from my brain, who introduced me to the life-tip of using men’s All Spice deodorant. She claimed not only was it cheaper, but “feminine scents” didn’t have the scent masking abilities men’s deodorant can provide. I called her up recently just to tell her after all these years she’s been unknowingly cheating the system, I asked her if there were ever times she felt frustrated that she even had to resort to these tactics, to this she responded, “Sometimes when I was in a locker room a girl would notice what brand I was using and would say something like ‘isn’t that for men?’ or ‘ew my brother uses that.’ It annoyed me at first but now that I’m older I smile, because in the end I realized I got the last laugh ’cause they were all overpaying for crappy deodorant.”
While defying gender norms and purchasing male intended products can be an empowering and effective tool to combat the pink tax, it’s time for more. As a young woman in the United States I’ve grown up seeing these disparities and inequalities go unnoticed for too long. For too long have I needed to spend far more money on toiletries, accessories and clothes than my brother and other male counterparts. It’s time to confront the overlooked biases around us. It’s time to confront gender based price discrimination. It’s time to confront the pink tax.
Works Cited
•Vanek Smith, S., host “The Problem With the Pink Tax.” Planet Money, NPR 13 November 2018. https://www.npr.org/transcripts/667539604
• Escudero, N., 2020. How Women Shoppers Can Beat The Pink Tax — The Simple Dollar. [online] The Simple Dollar. Available at: <https://www.thesimpledollar.com/financial-wellness/how-women-shoppers-can-beat-the-pink-tax/> [Accessed 16 November 2020].
•New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, 2020. Gender-Pricing-Study. [online] Www1.nyc.gov. Available at: <https://www1.nyc.gov/site/dca/partners/gender-pricing-study.page> [Accessed 12 November 2018].
•Shaw, H., 2016. ‘Pink Tax’ Has Women Paying 43% More For Their Toiletries Than Men | Financial Post. [online] Financialpost.com. Available at: <https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/pink-tax-means-women-are-paying-43-more-for-their-toiletries-than-men> [Accessed 16 November 2020].
•Swanson, A., The Washington Post. 2016. The Real Reason So Many Women Have To Spend So Much Time Getting Ready. [online] Available at: <https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/05/19/the-real-reason-that-so-many-women-have-to-spend-so-much-time-getting-ready/> [Accessed 16 November 2020].
