The Pink Tax. When people say men and women have equal rights, it always comes to mind. 

There is a lot kept from us about the products we buy in stores, especially around how unfairly they are priced and how it is all targeted against women. For instance, the idea of the “Pink Tax” is that when you buy items that are aimed for female consumers, you are forced to pay more. Two functionally identical razors would likely have completely varying prices, just because one is pink and targeted for ladies and the other is blue and grey, targeted for men. It individually costs women over $1,300 every single year, many of whom can’t afford it. The Pink Tax has recently been brought into the light, yet little action has been done to call companies out and fix it.

In New York State, what is known as the “Tampon Tax” was thankfully eliminated back in 2016. This tax was another unjust way of forcing women to pay more than others for things they cannot control, such as their menstrual cycles. Fundamentally, the Tampon Tax is a fee put on women’s feminine products and it taxes them as items that are not “necessities of life.” This fee causes all women together to pay an estimated additional $150,000,000 every year that men do not. The pricing alone is unfair, but it also spreads the idea among people in our society that we are too sensitive to handle periods and that feminine products (tampons, pads, menstrual cups etc) aren’t essential. Unfortunately, this brings them to look down upon us women even more.

Sadly, there are many states outside of New York that still enforce the Tampon Tax. Some of these places in the United States include, but are not limited to, Colorado, Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Hawaii, Idaho, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Iowa, Kansas, Indiana, Mississippi, and more.

It is so important for us to bring awareness  to this situation, as it affects half of the population by being one aspect of life that is putting women at a strong economic disadvantage. There have definitely been recent efforts made to get rid of these taxes and fees targeted against women, but more can always be done. What cannot be argued by any decent human being is that women should not have to pay extra to simply exist.