Are Men's Fashion Clothes Cheaper Than Women's Fashion Clothes

Hair salons charge up to £30 more than for women than men. Wilkinson Sword razors for women are 30% more than than the men'due south. But Nivea charges twice the price for its "male" moisturiser than for the "female person" equivalent. To celebrate the launch of gender equality in financial services, Coin explored other areas of spending to find out if there'south discrimination – and after crunching the numbers found the cost of beingness a woman is (mildly unscientifically) 6% more a man.

Clothes

Some retailers accuse different prices for near identical items, depending on whether you lot are in the men's or the women's sections. You might remember that men's apparel should price more every bit they are probable to involve more fabric, and this is the case at some shops – at Uniqlo, for instance, skinny jeans are £5 more than, a cashmere sweater £x more. However, other retailers accuse women more: at Next, for example, you will pay £24 for a "supersoft robe" dressing gown, while a human being's is £22. Women's Levi'southward jeans are £20 more than the £70 for men'southward 501s.

Table

Overall, where there was a departure, if you bought the same number of identical garments, you would pay more every bit a man. This seems to exist borne out past transaction information from Barclaycard which shows that amid its customers, women spend an boilerplate of £59 a time on clothes, while for men it is £65.

Merely across the class of a year, women exercise have a much bigger outlay. The latest ONS survey on household spending shows that in 2011 it was an boilerplate £244 a year on men'southward clothes, against an average of £458 on women's apparel. Women'due south shoes accounted for £109 a year, while men'south price £68. Men's accessories cost £10 a yr, while women's £21. Add together this all upwardly and on boilerplate women are spending £588 a year on their wardrobes, while men are shelling out £322.

Single-sex spending

The ONS also has information for the cost of underwear – and it may not be a surprise that household spending on women'south underwear is higher, at an boilerplate of £57.20 a year versus £26 for men. A trip to Marks & Spencer established that men's pants cost more than knickers, but women face boosted costs for tights and bras.

A survey earlier this year suggested the average adult female has 9 bras in her underwear drawer – even if you lot go for Marks & Spencer's basic two-pack of white bras, that means an outlay of most £70, and you will need to supercede them at some point.

Another item women will have to buy purely because of their gender is sanitary products. The average women has periods for at least 30 years of her life and the boilerplate cycle is 28 days, and so she has xiii a year. Assuming her period lasts 5 days and she uses iv sanitary towels a solar day, that'due south 260 a year. A bundle of 26 Ever Ultra costs £3.85 in Boots, so that adds up to £38.50 a year, or at least £1,155 over a lifetime. For tampons (assuming 20 cost £one.99) the outlay is probable to be effectually £776 over 30 years.

For many women, the toll of make-up adds a considerable amount each month. The ONS says £2.seventy a week, or £140 a year, is spent on cosmetics. Men might argue that they demand to buy razors, but so practise many women – and they tend to cost more.

At Boots, a pack of 10 Wilkinson Sword razors aimed at the female market cost £four.39 – £1.xxx more than a similar product aimed at men.

The cost of living (longer)

There are other costs that are dictated past nature. Women, for example, are advised to accept an boilerplate calorie intake of two,000 a 24-hour interval, while a human needs 2,500 to maintain his weight, so men need 25% more calories every day.

This will non necessarily price 25% more – you can bulk upwards a meal by throwing in more of the cheaper staples such as pasta and rice etc, just information technology will add to the cost. A survey of United states of america office workers found that men who bought takeaway sandwiches were spending well-nigh double on lunch each calendar week than their female person counterparts.

Women are besides brash to potable less – two to three units a 24-hour interval confronting the three or four guideline for men. A bottle of wine at 13.5% alcohol contains 10.13 units. If it costs £iv.99, assuming you have the maximum each day, as a woman you volition spend £one.47 and equally a man £1.96. That's a big supposition – many people beverage less, some more.

One big thing to remember is that although booze may be a preservative, women are likely to live longer, and will therefore have to meet their living costs for more years. In 2010 the average life expectancy at nascency was 82 for women and 78 for men: that means forking out for food, heating, travel, entertainment, for four actress years.

The alter to annuity rates brought in by the gender directive means that women will get the same income as a man, regardless of the fact that they are expected to alive longer, but they volition demand to factor these years of extra spending into their other savings.

Haircuts

Ask most men how much they pay for a haircut and they'll probably say around a tenner at their local barber. Unless they are friends with a hairdresser, woman will commonly spend at to the lowest degree double that. This will be in role because they become to different places for their cuts, only even if a human and women walked in to the same salon the woman would probably finish upward paying more.

Many salons take stopped pricing according to sex activity but some quote dissimilar costs according to the length of hair, which means women are probable to finish up spending more.

In Supercuts, for example, prices are advertised as starting from £thirteen.95 for a cut and £xvi.95 for a cut and launder. At my local salon the hairdresser said a man would pay £16.95 or £18.95, while a cut and shampoo of my shoulder-length hair would price £23.90.

At Nicky Clarke's salons in London and Manchester women pay quite a bit more than for a launder and cut, unless information technology is being done by Clarke himself. A cutting by the style director at the London salon is £105 if you lot are female and £75 if a male, while in Manchester women pay £65, men £50.

Past this point yous may well be shouting "I need to buy razors far more frequently than my girlfriend" or "I have to spend on my hair, you're a baldie", and of form your individual circumstances volition affect your spending habits and needs – or you may take other examples of instances where pricing is different for each sex.

Give usa your thoughts at guardian.co.united kingdom/coin or e-mail money@guardian.co.uk

Share this post