Men and women often buy similar essential products. For years now products targeted to women are sometimes more expensive than comparable products that are advertised to men. This is considered gender discrimination and is referred to as the so-called “pink tax.”
A poll at Athens Drive High School was taken to see how many males were aware of the “Pink Tax” When the result came out, only 14/50 males were aware of “Pink Tax.”
“I didn’t know what pink tax was before; I was told about it and I strongly disagree with the pink tax. I feel like it’s something that we should definitely get rid of as soon as possible,” said Braiden Wellman, junior at Athens Drive.
Pink tax affects many households in the United States. The name “pink tax” stems from the observation that many of the affected products are pink. Those who buy products advertised as female products spend a larger amount of money on necessities than those who buy products advertised for males.
“I live in a family of four males including myself; the females are my mom and my sister and one thing that I have definitely noticed is “pink tax” has affected the females in my family, compared to us guys. My mom and sister have to pay more for clothes and personal care products,” said Wellman.
According to jec.senate.gov, a U.S. study found that dry cleaning prices for women’s dress shirts were 90% more expensive compared to men’s shirts. “I absolutely do not think that it is right for females to be treated with this type of inequality,” said Wellman.
The study goes into depth on how the pink tax applies to products across a
range of categories, including children’s clothing, toys, games, and personal care products. The size of the markup
varies widely, and in some cases the price for men’s products is higher. Specifically, 42 percent of the time women’s products had a higher price tag, whereas men’s products had a higher price tag 18 percent of the time.
“I feel like if we get enough females to notice how much we are being overcharged on products because we are females, it would be hard to hide away our voices,” said Ari Mendez, sophomore at Athens Drive.
Pink tax has always been an issue but not enough has been done to make a chance or difference. For the amount of women that pink tax affects, not much has been done to stop it. “As a 16-year-old girl who works for everything I have, I have to think to myself all the time if I should pay to put gas in my car or if I should use that money to buy myself new razors,” — Liliana Sines-Kliest, junior at Athens Drive.
On change.org a group of senior girls in high school created a petition against pink tax, the seniors set their goal at 500 and are now progressing to 287. The girls are completing a Civic Action Project to bring about awareness to this issue. Not only is taking actions like this helpful but also simply speaking up more and spreading overall awareness will bring attention to the issue.
“We need to start a protest, speak up more, and bring attention to our community,” said Mendez.
