Pink Tax: An Unfair Trade Practice!
Try and compare the price of men’s face cream and women’s face cream, Men’s
razor and women’s razor. What do you notice? Is there a price gap? Which
product is charged more? Why? This is Pink tax.
Pink Tax refers
to the additional cost that women pay more than men for similar products. This
includes basic products like shampoos, razors, and clothes and those services
that are not even marketed, for example, haircuts and other salon services. One
of the most significant price discrepancies can be seen in hair care products,
which cost women 48% more and razor cartridges were the second-highest and cost
women 11% more than average. Let’s take an example of a deodorant. Deodorants
for men are relatively cheaper than the woman. Though, women are charged more
just because that product seems to be more feminine.
Impact of Pink
Tax
The effect of this “nickel-and-dime” Pink tax applies to items purchased by women from childhood through older adulthood, mostly left unnoticed.
- International Labour Organisation (ILO) states that women work more and are paid less. After being paid less for the same labour women are charged more for similar products which lead to less purchasing power in the hands of women.
- One can also conclude that imposing high costs on products for women deepens the gender division in the society by depicting that women’s bodies are way more sensitive and hence, their products are designed differently example, razors.
- Also, the Pink tax is more prevalent in the ‘Beauty product market’. By providing women with more categories in these products, the cosmetic industry pressurise women to confirm to laid beauty standards. Non-conformance with such beauty standards might harm their mental health, making them more at the risk of incurring social anxiety, depression, or loneliness.
How to stop paying
more for Pink?
Unfortunately,
there are no rules and regulations regarding the imposition of Pink tax but
still, we can try to avoid it. Here, are some suggestions:
1. 1. Always
do prior research and price comparison before buying any products:
We must behave like conscious consumers and choose the best value product. We can do a price comparison of similar products exclusive of gender biases in this way we’ll be able to judge how much extra we’re being charged and then reconsider our decision of buying that product.
2. Publicly call out brands:
To end the story
of Pink tax we have to call out the brands; you can raise the issue and tag
such brands on social media. Brands should not disseminate a system of discriminatory
gender-based pricing.
3. 3. Go
Gender Neutral:
We can save our
money by purchasing gender-neutral products instead of buying a similar product
that is specifically marketed for women.
4. 4. Support
organizations with gender-neutral pricing:
We could also
support organizations with gender-neutral pricing and choose not to purchase
products marketed specifically to women.
5. 5. Spreading
awareness of Pink Tax:
We shall spread
awareness of the existence of Pink tax so that everybody in our society can
take collective actions and raise their voices in eradicating this phenomenon
of Pink tax.
Pink Tax: An unfair practice
This has been in
existence because society perceives that women are more concerned about their
looks and fall for attractive packaging. Not many are aware of the Pink tax.
The Pink tax is usually hidden and many times one would not realize paying a
premium price unless they dig much deeper and begin comparing prices for each
product that is available in the market. Since there is, no law that prevents
this pricing method, complete elimination and legal interference is not
possible. This is probably why many people are not aware of the Pink tax and
most have probably accepted this practice as a norm.
Conclusion
Pink Tax is more
of a fact that women are charged premium prices just for the colourful outer
packaging or some specific designing. However, now we know all about Pink Tax
and the system of unfair pricing. We shall spread awareness of the existence of
Pink Tax and be responsible citizens and let ourselves free from these vicious
activities that harm the perception of society for equality in all forms.
References:
- https://thelogicalindian.com/gender/pink-tax-gender-bias-30767
- https://bit.ly/3BdZW73
- https://bit.ly/3gDyWnQ
- https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/gender-tax-why-are-women-paying-more-for-products-despite-earning-less-4248501.html/amp
- https://www.bankrate.com/finance/credit-cards/pink-tax-how-women-pay-more/
- https://thelogicalindian.com/amp/gender/pink-tax-gender-bias-30767
- https://towardsdatascience.com/a-pink-tax-exploratory-data-analysis-94642f83d4c5
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