States like New York, California, Utah, and Virginia have been in the news recently for their successful passing of bills that would eliminate the increased sales tax on feminine hygiene products, known as the “tampon tax”. These taxes range from 2.5-7.5 percent, with Illinois having the highest, at 10.25 percent. These taxes clearly unfairly target women, and the elimination of them is a large step forward in achieving the fight to end gender inequality.
Despite this achievement, however, there are still severely unfair pricing discrepancies in the products for men and women. Known as “gender pricing”, this trend significantly targets and hurts women, and its elimination is vital to the complete achievement of gender equality.
There is no question as to whether or not gender pricing is a real phenomenon; numerous studies have been done that display proof of its practice, and a simple observation in almost any retail store can provide proof as well. In one particular study from Dec. 2015 by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, it was found that women’s products cost an average of seven percent more than men’s products. They also found that, out of 800 products surveyed, women’s products were priced higher 42 percent of the time, while men’s products were only at 18 percent.
Gender pricing is not limited to retail products; an undercover experiment conducted by CBS News earlier this year found that women are charged more for many services, one of the most notable being dry cleaning. The experiment sent two people, one male and one female, into several dry cleaners within New York City with nearly identical shirts, and compared the prices on the service. Their results showed that the woman was charged almost twice as much more than the man in half of the places they surveyed. The biggest discrepancy was at one location where the woman paid $7.50 and the man only $2.85. This trend is also seen in many other services, such as haircuts and car services, which one study found that female customers were charged 40 percent more than male customers for the same car repairs.
The financial impact that this phenomenon places on woman is a profound one, especially considering the gender pay gap, in which women are paid only 79 cents for every dollar a man makes. The same study done by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs also concluded that women end up paying $1,351 more every year as a result of gender pricing. According to the National Women’s Law Center, nearly one out of seven women live in poverty. Are we creating and contributing to a society that inherently makes women inferior to men on the basis of unavoidable price increases? Now that the tampon tax is close to being eradicated, it is time to extend our focus to fighting gender pricing, in order to fully achieve gender equality.
