Just being a woman is an endless drain on our pockets

SOMETIMES it’s hard to be a woman... and I’m not just referring to our troublesome hormones, caregiver burden or general gender inequality.

I’m talking about life being harder on the pocket for females. The very fact we’ve been born women means we are – over a lifetime – going to spend more on personal care than our male counterparts.

It costs more to be a woman, period. And there have been many estimates of how much a woman will spend on menstruation products in her lifetime (at the very least, more than €6,000). Throw in healthcare in pregnancy and HRT in menopause and countless doctor, physio, mental health and hospital appointments – hormones don’t just play havoc with our bodies and minds, but also with our bank accounts.

The world has made strides to deal with affordable access to menstrual products and facilities but period poverty still touches an estimated 500 million women and girls worldwide.

It’s unthinkable that, for example, in a country such as Algeria, menstrual products might cost a local person almost 15% of their monthly income, according to a virtual health platform Plushcare.

And then, nearing the end of a menstrual lifetime, women don’t fare much better. The years of menopause can be hugely challenging to navigate, and while HRT can ease some of the horror symptoms, it also costs about €30 a month in this country. There have been whisperings of funding for free HRT for all Irish women but at 45 and perimenopausal, I fear I’ll be through the worst of it before that happens.

On top of that, whether we like it or not, the majority of us (myself included) have well and truly been indoctrinated in impossibly high beauty standards that have us preening and pruning every hair follicle and skin cell we possess.

A woman’s grooming regime is a complex and timely investment; even women who declare themselves ‘low-maintenance’ will be forking out wads of cash for basic skincare and hair care.

Then you have the facials, the manis and pedis, the brows and lashes, the hair removal, the tanning – and, of course, the ultimate artillery in our battle to keep some semblance of youth – injectibles and cosmetic surgery.

We women are constantly battling to look presentable, and not only is it bloody exhausting, it also costs a bomb.

I love being female, but sometimes I’ll admit to being jealous of men who just seem to shower and shave and are ready for the world. Damn you all.

Keeping in mind that we are still paid less than our male counterparts (the most recent IBEC report shows a 13.8% pay disparity between men and women in Ireland), we also have to contend with pink tax.

This phenomenon is a genderbased price discrimination whereby similar products marketed for women – particularly cosmetics – cost more than the equivalent product marketed at male consumers.

THE pink tax was highlighted on RTÉ One’s The Complaints Bureau this week, when Hannah Costello, a student at DCU, compiled a report detailing the cost discrepancies between men’s and women’s products.

She found that a razor marketed at a woman was 75c, while a man’s was priced at 56c, for example. A huge difference was observed in a trip to an unnamed hairdresser, where a man’s cut is €48 while a woman’s is almost double that at €84.

The reasons we are being fleeced for our femininity can be traced to as far back as the 1920s, according to financial platform Fincent, when women’s products began to be priced higher than men’s ‘even if the only discernible difference was packaging’.

Post-Second World War, the emergence of colour TV meant pink marketing really upped the ante, with canny retailers knowing exactly who to sell their products to – the women at home, who were the main spenders for their families.

We were easy prey: while the men worked, we looked after the home and the children, brainwashed by seemingly benevolent marketing forces that promised us more beautiful, shinier lives.

We fell for the unsavoury marketing ploy hook, line and sinker – and we are still being played, says Damian O’Reilly, a senior lecturer in retail management at the College of Business at TU Dublin.

‘Women still do 75% of household spending, and even the experience of the weekly shop in a supermarket – the lighting, stock and colour – is geared towards women,’ he told RTÉ.

Critics of the pink tax point to economies of scale and women opting for products with more expensive raw materials (which makes sense with face creams and hair colouring like Balayage, which takes longer). But this theory fails with other price comparisons, from the aforementioned razors to shower gels, fragrances and even dry cleaning.

One way around pink tax is to really scrutinise products where possible, and buy male or non-gendered goods instead.

We are still going to need menstrual products, and this method is unlikely to work at the hairdresser’s – but hey, every little helps, especially if you’re a woman.