Gender inequality has long been an issue present in our society, affecting job opportunities, salaries, relationships, and, recently mentioned, product purchases and the economy. Specifically, a gender-based upcharge called the Pink Tax. With the help of social media, awareness of the Pink Tax has spread, noting either a 12-cent difference between blue and pink razors or a significant price difference between kids’ toys based on their color. Katie Barbour, a Math teacher at Grosse Pointe South, finds that often times, it is the necessary items that are affected the most.
“I know that it’s a tax on products that women have to use,” Barbour said. “So, for example, menstrual products, which women need no matter what, and are not optional.”
Aside from packaged products being affected by the tax, Andrew Taylor, a Social Studies teacher from Grosse Pointe South, sees a difference in the way services are priced for men and women.
“[Different products] probably didn’t have ‘female versions’ until more recently, but I’m sure marketing has been different for a very long time,” Taylor said. “For example, if a man and a woman had the same length hair and walked into a salon to get a haircut, she could get charged $55, while he pays $20. It’s immediately different just because she’s sitting in a different chair than he is.”
While some service providers and brands have seen the Pink Tax as a way to make a little extra money, women like Bethany Strong ’28 see it simply as an annoyance with no relevant “upside” for anyone.
“When you think about it, why does it even happen?” Strong said. “Everything should just cost the same regardless of what color it is.”
And while many are aware of this difference in prices, the “Pink Tax” continues to live on in the products of big businesses internationally. So if people are aware of this injustice, why does it continue to exist? Taylor believes that the way to eliminate this tax won’t come through awareness, but rather avoidance.
“Take a sweatshirt, for example,” Taylor said. “If Under Armor sells their women’s sweatshirt for $50 and their men’s for $40, then I’m not going to buy Under Armor products because I’m not going to tolerate that. Customers are just going to have to find the companies that are doing the ‘right thing’, and avoid certain companies that aren’t.”
Barbour believes that it isn’t only the 12-cent difference that upsets people affected by the tax, but it’s the inequality of what is taxed and why corporations choose to implement it.
“[Businesses] need to actually consider what products are a requirement to exist and that none of those should be taxed, whether it’s needed by a man, a woman, or anybody in between,” Barbour said. “We don’t tax food for a reason, and that’s because we need it to survive, so what’s the difference?”
