It’s not cheap being a woman. And thanks to that whole gender pay gap we’re making less money than men, for the same work. If you think it’s no big deal, consider that for a college grad, that adds up to losing an average of $1.2-million over a lifetime, just for being female. That’s a ton of money we’re not bringing home. And that makes us really tired of paying for stuff like this:

1. Birth Control – Even though the Affordable Care Act was supposed to make birth control “free” for everyone with insurance, lots of us with private insurance are still paying way too much for it. And so are the people without private insurance. And you’d think that since half of the pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned, they’d be giving birth control away like the do with flu shots by now.
2. Period Products—And Taxes on Them – Get this: over your lifetime, you’re going to spend over $18,000 on period-related products! And most of those are taxed as well. Canada recently got rid of their “tampon tax” after public pressure, but in most U.S. states, we’re still paying the taxes.
3. Toilet Paper – Americans spend more than any other country in the world on our toilet paper, over $6-billion a year, in fact! Sure, we need it, but it’s really frustrating how the rolls keep shrinking but the price doesn’t.
4. Mammograms – The CDC says breast cancer is the most common cancer for women in the U.S., the most common cause of cancer-related deaths for Hispanic women, and the second-most common cause of death from cancer for white, black, Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Alaskan Native women. So you’d think that they’d be giving mammograms away, but sadly, the co-pays are still very expensive for lots of women with private insurance.
5. Home Pregnancy Tests – These are extremely important when you need to know if you’re pregnant or not…but do they have to make them so darn expensive?
6. Maternity Clothes – These are the clothes that you’re only going to wear for a few months of your pregnancy, no matter how cute they are. So how can maternity clothes be a $2.4-billion market in the U.S.? There should be recycling program so we can all just swap hand-me-downs for free when we get pregnant!
7. Diapers – On average, a baby needs $18 worth of disposable diapers a week, which comes out to $938 a year. That’s a whole lot to spend on something that gets pooped in and tossed, and we haven’t even added the cost of the wipes and diaper cream yet! And if you use cloth diapers instead, you’re spending a lot more to start with and then you’ve got to spend time and energy to wash them and it’s tough for a lot of working parents. It’s a huge expense either way.
8. More Than Men for Just About Everything – The New York CIty Department of Consumer Affairs recently did a study on the “pink tax,” which is what they call the fact women tend to be charged more for goods and services than men. The study looked at over 800 products from 90 brands, including everything from clothes to grooming products, school supplies and even medical braces. They found that women and girl’s products cost an average of 7% more than stuff for men and boys, even when the products are EXACTLY the same. How infuriating that we make less and pay more. Thanks, guys!

Source: Women’s Health Magazine