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In the 21st century, society is going through a period of transition that combines major political and socio-cultural changes. One of the transformations that vertebrae the current social dynamics is the rupture with the binary paradigm and the questioning of gender stereotypes that have historically ordered social relations. But not everything is rosy, or rather it is. In spite of the advances and the conquest of historical rights in favor of women and dissidence, there are still those that, stealthily, persist and are reproduced in the small corners of the system that many times we do not even problematize.
The supermarket shelf is one of those corners, not by chance considering that it is women who generally take care of the household chores and usually decide and execute the purchases in a household. According to figures from the World Bank, based on data from the Boston Consulting Group and Harvard Business Review, women account for approximately 70% of purchasing decisions, and at the local level, the report "Gender Gaps in Argentina. Estado de situación y desafíos" (DNEIyG, 2020), indicates thatit is women who perform more than 75% of unpaid domestic tasks. This makes them a desirable target for advertising and marketing strategies.
On any shelf we will often find products aimed specifically at women and feminized identities. Pink razors, deodorants with floral scents, antibacterial gels, shampoos with pictures of women, backpacks with princess motifs, and hand creams, distinguished in versions for men and for women. At first glance, the difference may be the color, the shape, the packaging, and the results promised by the product, which when directed towards women usually highlights characteristics such as beauty, softness or slimness. However, this difference in form implies, in essence, a price premium that in many cases has no justification in terms of production costs. This surcharge is known as Pink Tax or "Pink Tax".
According to data from the report "Pink Tax Argentina", carried out by the consulting firm Focus Market and published in early 2022, on average in Argentina women pay 12% more than men for the same product, even more than in 2021 when the gap was 11% . For example, while the classic (blue) razor costs $328, the price of the pink...