‘The Pink Tax - Wealth over Women’

Issues of inequality between men and women while buying gender specific products were highlighted by a group of Cavan students at this year's BT Young Scientist Competition.

Kayla Conaty-Hicks, Mikayla Daly and Sarah Smith from Loreto College in Cavan looked at ‘The Pink Tax - Wealth over Women’ in the Social & Behavioural Sciences category.

The ladies wanted to see if women are being exposed to gender based price discrimination in terms of similar health and beauty products marketed to men and women.

“Our project is based on the Pink Tax, which is a term that was popularised in 1995 in California,” said Kayla, explaining how the project looks at “disproportionately priced products for men and women".

“It’s an investigation into discrimination against female consumers,” she outlined.

The group concluded the products aimed at women are of a higher price, however often the quality of the products is also increased.