I, like many other women in America, am absolutely outraged. Woman are paying more for the same products as men because “it’s for women.” Many programs, including "The Today Show," have sent producers, researchers, or anyone involved in their show to the store with a shopping list for a man and one for a woman to get the same products marketed to their respective gender to compare the price.
"You wouldn't notice this because women's products are separated from the men's products, so it's not easy to compare the prices," said consumer retail expert Andrea Woroch. "This is actually happening. Women are paying more than men."
After watching a few of these videos, I was not only convinced but full of rage! So I did some online shopping of my own (Thank you to Target.com for you wonderful examples of The Pink Tax!)
Still not mad? Over the course of a woman's life, she will spend upward of $3,000 on "feminine products" aka period products. And no, your food stamps won't cover ANY of it, because, well, they're "luxuries." Guardian writer Jessica Valenti wrote "The Case for Free Tampons," an argument that feminine products should, at minimum, be tax free, if not free all together.
So now that you know you spend thousands more dollars just because you're a human woman and get your period, now come to find out that companies like Old Navy who are charging roughly $15 more for for women's plus sized jeans than regular jeans, but men's jeans cost the same of regular and plus sizes. I'm pretty pissed! "I was fine paying the extra money as a plus-sized woman, because, you know, more fabric equals higher cost of manufacture," One signer of a petition against this price gap wrote online, "However, selling jeans to larger-sized men at the same cost as they sell to smaller men not only negates the cost of manufacture argument, but indicates that Old Navy is participating in both sexism and sizeism, directed only at women." But women for the win, this petition lead to changes in the pricing in the women's jeans- and even expanding their plus sized offerings.
Now lady's, just remember how much more you are paying for everyday products next time you open your paycheck, which will likely be less than your male counter in the same position