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‘Financial microaggressions’: why ‘pink tariffs’ hurt women more than men
Women’s goods are taxed at a higher rate than men’s, an invisible bias that is estimated to cost women $2.5bn a year
As first reported by the 19th, two Democratic House members, Lizzie Fletcher of Texas and Brittany Pettersen of Colorado, introduced a bill this session calling on the treasury department to study pink tariffs, and publish any findings on how these taxes might lead to a gender bias in retail. Ed Gresser, vice-president and director for trade and global markets at the centrist thinkthank Progressive Policy Institute, said in a statement that the bill “will help us design a better and fairer system”, noting that gender bias in clothing “likely costs women at least $2.5bn per year”. Sheng Lu, a professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware, says the wide margin between tariffs on women’s and men’s clothing are “the results of decades-old negotiations” influenced by simple misogyny.
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