Gender inequality has been prevalent throughout history along with many feminist movements and activists fighting for women’s rights; and it still is in modern day society.
Pink tax is the pricing of items targeted to women (usually pink items) and a capitalistic gender-based inequity. While it first applied to feminine hygiene products, the list of Pink Tax items has increased.Even though Pink tax is not recognized as a real tax put on women-targeted products, it does not hide the fact that it exists and many women are not aware.
Jennifer Weiss-Wolf who is a lawyer as well as the co-founder of an organization, Period Equity, explains to Healthine that many states have reported gender-pricing and how women have paid much more for their own hygiene products compared to men, despite the fact that woman have a more extensive list of hygiene products than men.
“I went through every tax code in every state that didn’t exempt menstrual products to see what they did exempt, and the list is ridiculous,” Weiss-Wolf says to Healthline.
Furthermore, Natalie Taylor, a certified financial planner, explains on U.S News that women have a much lower income than men in an equal work environment. This means that despite the bigger necessity that women need for feminine products, than men need for their own products, women have an unfair advantage in being able to afford and buy their necessities.
“Specifically, because women earn less for equal work, their Social Security benefits are lower as well. Lower income also means it’s harder to find dollars to save and invest toward retirement, and because women live longer than men on average, they need more saved for retirement to last throughout their lifetime. This combination of factors puts women at a significant disadvantage from a retirement standpoint,” Taylor says on U.S News
Many people have expressed their opinions on the fairness of Pink Tax just like JP Krahel, an associate professor of accounting at Loyola University. She explains on CBS News advocates on the differences between men and women gendered products despite being the same product.
“There’s no good reason I could think of why the same goods, made of the same materials, at the same cost should be tariffed at different rates because they’re targeted to different people,” said Krahel on CBS News.
Citations:
“Pink Tax: The Real Cost of Gender-Based Pricing.” Healthline, 6 Aug. 2020, www.healthline.com/health/the-real-cost-of-pink-tax#The-tampon-tax.
The Pink Tax Costs Women Thousands of Dollars over Their Lifetimes …, money.usnews.com/money/personal-finance/taxes/articles/the-pink-tax-costs-women-thousands-of-dollars-over-their-lifetimes. Accessed 19 Feb. 2024.
Gebre-Ab, Sina. “‘Pink Tax’: Women Paying More Than Men for the Same Products.” CBS News, 23 Feb. 2023, www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/pink-tax-women-paying-more-than-men-for-the-same-products.
