So, can someone explain to me why adding "for women" on a product would increase the cost by eight percent?
It must be because that lavender is so much more expensive to manufacture than the blue. Or maybe adding the pink vaguely flower-like graphic was a much harder for the art department to manage than the blue grey line thing. Seems unlikely, but I can’t think of another reason. Anyone got a better excuse?
Yeah, I can’t seem to figure it out, either. The “pink tax” -- when products targeted towards women are more expensive than their male counterparts -- is clearly at work.
When you go to any department, drug, grocery or box store, one thing is clear: products targeting women cost more. According to the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, women pay 13% more on personal care products, 8% more for adult clothing, and 7% more for toys and accessories.
But it’s more than just two similar products having a substantial price differential -- oftentimes, women’s products are smaller, and more cheaply made. For example, women’s moisturizer and men’s moisturizer from the same company might both be seven dollars, but the women’s moisturizer is in a three-ounce tube, and the men's is in a four. Another example is that pink Duplos, lego-like products made for toddlers, are of worse quality than the ones aimed at boys. There is even a cutsie colloquial term used by companies for these gendered products: “shrink it and pink it." (Because there is nothing horribly patronizing about that.)
Look, I have have a confession to make: I un-ironically love the color pink. I had a light pink hat and gloves that I wore constantly throughout the fifth grade. My winter coat is a bright pink, waterproof hoodie. I have pink towels in my bathroom and a pink bedspread. I get the appeal of the color, and I get the appeal of gendered products, but I think I can deal with a plain blue razor from now on.
That’s right. Until I walk into Target and see that "women’s" razors are the same price as men's, I am walking past the pink and getting the stuff meant for the boys, no matter how stupid the name. (Xtreme3 Ultimate? Really? Because Xtreme2 would just not be extreme enough, apparently.)
I am doing my best to be a savvy, independent adult woman -- sure, I only succeed about 10 percent of the time, but still. I am not sacrificing any part of my paycheck so that my underarms are only touched by lavender plastic as opposed to blue.
Maybe at some point corporations will make products that are priced based on quality, not color. Maybe someday CEOs will not expect women to quietly be patronized and cheated, and instead treat them like the critical consumers they are. Or maybe, crazier still, there will be options for agender products and let consumers decide if they really need an explicitly feminine or masculine razor.
Hey, a girl can dream.
