Here’s how much more it costs to be a woman than a man in NYC

In case you were wondering why we still need feminism, NYC’s Department of Consumer Affairs did the math.

In anew report, From Cradle to Cane: The Cost of Being a Female Consumer, the agency looked at identical products in several categories with “clear male and female versions,” andfound that women pay more than men 42percent of the time. Men paid more for just 18percent of the items studied.

Officials looked at 794 similar products from 91brands,such as identical Abercrombie & Fitch logo T-shirts and shaving products. Products targeted to women were more likely to be expensive in every category:

• 13 percent more for personal care products
• 8 percent more for adult clothing
• 8 percent more for senior/home health care products
• 7 percent more for toys and accessories
• 4 percent more for children’s clothing

On average, costs for women’s products were 7 percent higher than men’s.

The biggest difference came in personal care, where women paid 13 percent more for, again, identical hygiene items, with shampoos targeted to womencosting astaggering 48 percent more than men’s. This doesn’t, of course, account for the additional costs of feminine hygiene products, makeup, nail polish and other products to conform tomodern beauty standards.

Though the agency didn’t estimate an annual cost disparity, it said the difference in product pricing adds up to thousands of dollars over a woman’s lifetime.All the while the gender pay gap remains stagnant at 79 cents on a man’s dollar for female workers.