Why It Costs More To Be A Woman

How many times have you walked into a hair salon, seen a different price for men and women and not batted an eyelid? Or happily paid more to get your blouse dry-cleaned than your boyfriend’s shirt? We do it all the time, and according to a US study, women are paying more because of their gender on everything from haircuts to house mortgages.

California became the first US state to legislate against this insidious form of discrimination after finding that American women paid an extra $151 billion in mark-ups nationwide when compared to their male counterparts.

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In most countries and states, however, this gender price gap goes unchecked because there is no law banning sex discrimination in the sale of goods and services.

According to a report by marie claire US, providers can legally charge consumers for “extra labour”. This means that if a dry cleaner isn’t equipped to press women’s shirts and must do them by hand, they are entitled to charge a female customer more than a male one.

This logic seems fair, until you imagine how you’d feel if hairdressers gave discounts to blondes because their hair is easier to dye, or charged according to race or sexual orientation.

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Add a wage gap to these routine gender mark-ups, and being a woman becomes a very expensive proposition.

What do you think? Should governments legislate against this form of gender discrimination, or do you understand why women are charged more than men in some situations?
RELATED video: see how we transformed four prominent Australian women into "men" and asked them to reflect on how gender has shaped their lives.