I’m sick of paying the Pink Tax in exchange for my safety
Women are paying excess sums of money to keep themselves safe and I, for one, am exhausted by it.
You may have heard of the traditional ‘pink tax’ which refers to the hiked price of women’s products in comparison to ungendered or men’s ones. You’ll see it in the supermarkets when pink razor blades ‘for women’ cost triple the price of men’s. In fact, when anything is branded in pink it suddenly becomes more expensive than it’s neutral alternative. The pink tax also referred to how sanitary products were taxed as a 'luxury’ item up until 2021. It’s meant that for years women have paid extra for products that they need or for one’s they’ve been told they must buy.
Whilst this traditional pink tax is very much still at play, it is now becoming more known about and avoided in many peoples’ shopping habits. However a new wave of ‘pink tax’ is emerging when it comes to women’s safety - one that costs even more and is even harder to abolish.
In 2018 the Rudin Center for Transportation published a report outlining the extra costs incurred by women in New York City when travelling. This included the expense of avoiding public transport and opting to use cabs after dark in order to travel more safely. The report concluded that women were spending a median extra cost per month of $26-$50 to take alternative transport for different safety reasons. But it’s not just New York where this is happening. A few weeks ago, for example, I worked particularly late and instead of parking where I usually do which costs £1.50 all day (fantastic, I know), I wanted to be closer to the office so I didn’t have to walk an extra 15 minutes down a less lit route to get back to my car. I paid £12.95 to park in this closer car park, which is more than my hourly wage. Now yes, I could have just paid my £1.50 and probably have been absolutely fine walking across town at night but, to me, it didn’t feel safe and I didn’t want to put myself in an uncomfortable and risky position.
This is something that women are doing regularly. Whether it’s parking closer to where they need to be, or taking taxis home instead of public transport, women are spending excessive amounts to feel safe. Why? Because there is an epidemic of violence against women and we are not guaranteed safety in our everyday lives. Since 2009, one women has been killed every three days in the UK, reports from the Femicide Census found. So it’s not a surprise that so many women are concerned for their safety. We constantly take extra measures to ensure we feel safe and to avoid becoming a statistic, even when they don’t guarantee it. And if those measures incur an extra cost, we don’t exactly have a choice but to pay.
When it comes to the traditional pink tax we’re finding ways to evade it, like by buying ‘genderless’ products and not buying into ridiculous marketing techniques. But when it comes to our safety, how are we supposed to avoid it?
The world is not a place that makes women feel safe and without systemic changes to misogyny and gender-based violence, it never will be.
So we have to pay our pink tax, even when it doesn’t even guarantee that we remain unharmed. And for that, I will always be angry.
