Tristan Godin | February 6, 2024
Injustice. That is the pink tax in a word. The pink tax is an act of discrimination carried out by society, it is an unfair part of the world we live in that we have normalized. The extinction of the pink tax is a step closer to gender equality. The movement begins with supporting gender-neutral products. Supporting these products can influence companies to reduce prices.
Products marketed to women are priced higher than those marketed to men or that are gender-neutral. Companies are making the consumer pay extra for the colour pink; literally. These gender-neutral products are no different than the ones marketed to men or women, apart from colour and are cheaper than the ones targeted specifically, to the female audience. Therefore making these products a more affordable option. Backing gender-neutral products is a path of resistance and challenge to the corporations who attempt to force the pink tax.
Beneath are three scooters from the same brand and the same model taken from Amazon. The pink one is five dollars more than the blue one and four dollars more than the black one.
According to the law of demand, if gender-neutral substitutions decrease the sales of feminine-targeted products, then corporations would have to lower the price of their products to garner more sales. According to the article “The Pink Tax or Why We Need More Gender Neutral Consumer Products” by Andreas Avester, it states that the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs surveyed close to 800 similar men's and women's products. To name a few, they found that girl's toys are 7% more expensive than boy's ones, and that personal care products are 13% more expensive for a woman than a man. The products, such as the ones below, are identical yet the one in pink is approximately 72% more expensive than the one in black and 81% more than the one in blue. In some instances it’s not the manufacturers who are charging more but the third-party sellers. If unisex products are supported, these outrageous price differences would get less sales and the prices would be forced to drop.
Normalizing Inclusivity
In the global market, there is no inclusivity and a significant lack of unisex products. The market is full of “Men's products” and “Women's products” as a way to avoid having a baseline of how much a product should cost. This lack of price floor contributes to the drastic increase in prices. The overall look of packaging influences the thoughts of the consumer as the packages are specifically made to influence potential customers to buy their products. With gender-neutral products being more easily accessible in stores we are allowing ourselves to have a more equal future. Gender-neutral products are going to assist in putting the discriminatory pink tax to an end. The advocacy of these products will be a factor which will result in equality in stores.