In an Intro. to Mass Communications class, we students were asked to chose a topic, find five websites discussing the topic, and critique them. For this assignment, I have chosen the topic of pink tax. All women have experienced this “tax” in some form or another. The pink tax is when products marketed for women are more expensive than those for men, even for everyday items such as razors, shaving cream, shampoos, clothes, shoes, haircuts, etc. The increased pricing is referred to as pink since most of the items affected are pink, as it is considered the most feminine color. It is considered one of the most notable forms of gender-based discrimination within the economy.
The first website I will review that discusses the pink tax is Listen, Money Matters. The link provided takes you to the page of the blog post “The Pink Tax: What’s the Cost of Being a Female Consumer This Year?” by Candice Elliott. The background colors of the page are simple, black and white, while what stands out the most is a large pink photo with the nose and mouth of a woman being shown under the title of the page. The navigation bar at the top of the page runs smoothly, making the website simple to use, and the search bar provided at the top right is a great addition to any website. Under the photo there is a drop-down box containing the page’s Table of Contents, which is helpful for particularly long pages or posts, however, as a personal thought, I don’t believe that this page needs it, as the sections aren’t significantly lengthy. The page reads left to right, which is natural, logical, and easy to follow. Hyperlinks are a green color, making it efficient for the user to navigate around the website. The page has just about the right amount of graphics spread out throughout the post where necessary and is not littered with ads or other distracting items on the sides like some websites have, making it effortless to focus on the information on the page.
At the bottom of the page, we find a box containing information about the author, Candice Elliot, and a link to another page on the website that provides access to the author’s contact information, as well as the links to what seems to be all of the other works the author has written on the site. Elliott graduated in 1998 from Eastern Michigan University with a Bachelor’s in Marketing and has been a personal finance writer for seven years with Listen, Money Matters, so she has adequate credibility with the topic. Also, considering the pink tax clearly deals with money, and looking at the website’s name, the site seems to be fairly credible, as well. Elliott provides links to other sources and statistics to further back-up the data, highlights statements in a quote-like style that she deems important, drawing the eye towards it, and supplies us with plenty of information on what pink tax is, how long it has been around, what has been done to do away with it, etc.
The second site covering pink tax in great detail that I will look into is Wikipedia. Wikipedia is an online, collaborative encyclopedia with information on almost everything, accessible for free to everyone. The overall look of the page is rather dull, painfully simple. Using black, white, and some shades of gray, there are no colors to distract, which is helpful to prevent straying from the page’s information, however, the layout is far too plain, causing difficulty to focus. Hyperlinks are a blue color, easily spotted throughout the text, references are made as endnotes, linking the sources where support for the information provided in the articles can be found, and there is a small handful of images. The images are small, and there definitely could be more to improve the visuality. At the top of the page, after the heading, is a general overview of the topic, and then a drop-down Contents box to navigate all of the sections within the page, however, I don’t believe that this page is lengthy enough to condone a Contents box, either. At the bottom of the page, Wikipedia presents us with links to other, similar articles within their site, which is accommodating. The page provides a plethora of information about the pink tax, as most Wikipedia pages do on any given topic unless there is little to no information on a subject. The website’s credibility is up in the air, as it is run by many different people, and information can be changed by anyone at any time. There are, however, people who pay attention to the site and correct false and unreliable information as it is found, and it is also a convenient feature to maintain, as new, true information can be added to pages as it is discovered or written.
Thirdly, I will evaluate the website Good Housekeeping. The link provided takes you to the page of the blog post “What Is the Pink Tax? If You're a Woman, It's Costing You Lots of Money Every Year” by Beth Dreher. The site is a little overwhelming as you first load into it. The top of the page has a button to press to open up the navigation on the left side of the page, which is fairly easy to work with, and a search bar, that when you click, doesn’t just allow you to type in it, but pulls up a whole overlay over the page to type into, which I find a little odd, but it isn’t exactly faulty. At the top of the page are links to other, popular pages on the site, and right under that is a huge ad. Also appearing when you first load into the page, is a pop-up ad in the bottom right corner, several other ads appear on the page, even in-between paragraphs, breaking up the text and becoming a huge distraction from the information. The site itself even breaks up the text with a video ad with “More From Good Housekeeping”, causing half of the next section title to be separated from the rest of the title awkwardly. There are images to go along with the text, and they are attractive, but I believe that they would be even more attractive if there weren’t so many diverting ads surrounding them. It causes a lot of confusion, and honestly a lot of annoyance. Hyperlinks are thinly underlined in red, noticeable, and providing references to other sites from which the information and given data are found. The bottom of the page is full of links to other pages discussing topics relating to money, and I find them annoying to scroll through to get to the bottom where the website contact information can be found.
At the top of the page, under the page’s title, the author’s name is hyperlinked, taking you to a page about the author, Beth Dreher. This page is also littered with ads. The page provides no contact information for Dreher, only that she is the Features Director for Woman’s Day and Good Housekeeping, and links to other pieces written by her on the site. With a quick Google search, I found Beth Dreher on LinkedIn. Her profile states that currently, she is the Executive Director of both Woman’s Day as of July 2019 and Good Housekeeping as of March 2020, meaning her information on Good Housekeeping has yet to be updated. Dreher graduated in 2001 from Mississippi State University with a Bachelor’s in English and in 2003 from the University of Alabama at Birmingham with her Master’s. While she is a credible writer and editor, she does not seem to have particular reliability in the topic, so the information she provides she likely takes from other sources and opinions, rather than solely her own expertise. The information on the page that Dreher writes, are the basics of the topic, the same information found in any of the sites she links, and not particularly anything new or remarkable that cannot be found elsewhere.
Next, the website Healthline also goes over the pink tax on the page “Pink Tax: The Real Cost of Gender-Based Pricing” written by Jessica Wakeman. The first impression I have is that the website does its best to remain simplistic, though I find the navigation system a little much. At the top of the page, you click on the button to drop down the navigation, which covers the entire page. There are a lot of links to click and rather than having drop-downs for specific subjects, all of the links are just there under the headings, causing a need to physically scroll down through everything rather than the simpler, dropping-down of a section and selection of the specific page you need. Also at the top of the page is a convenient search bar. There are ads along the right side of the page nearly the whole way down to the bottom, and a couple in between the sections, which are disruptive. Hyperlinks are blue and quickly noticeable, and the graphics within the text are attractive and well-placed. There are a lot of sections and tons of information on pink tax in this article, so for this site, I wish there was a Contents drop-down box so I could more quickly get to certain places without having to scroll for so long.
At the bottom of the article, there is information about the author Jessica Wakeman, as well as links to her website and Twitter account. She is a writer and editor for primarily feminist issues, who received a Bachelor’s in journalism and gender and sexuality studies at New York University in 2005. Considering her studies in gender and sexuality, she has a little more credibility in the pink tax topic than a regular journalist may have. The website itself is one geared more towards health, and it doesn’t seem to have a lot to do with money matters or pink tax, so it is a little odd to find an article about it on this website. So while the author is a little more credible, the website itself that the page is on isn’t exactly.
And lastly, we have Clever Girl Finance. The page seems simple, like the other four websites have been, and has the main colors of white and black, but with a little green here and there for buttons, underlining, and hyperlinks. As it first loads up, there is an ad at the bottom of the screen, and while that is a little annoying, free sites do have to get their money from somewhere. On the bar at the top of the page, the navigation runs smoothly, and there is a search bar to easier find other pages within the site. Under the title of the article, “Are You Aware Of The Pink Tax? The Cost Of Being Female” by Kate Braun, is a more neutral-colored image, unlike those of the other sites who were sticking with the bright pink graphics to coincide with pink tax. There are ads in between sections and paragraphs, causing little disruptions within the reading of the article.
The author’s page is linked to her name, Kate Braun, under the page’s title, and a little information about her is found at the bottom of the page. The linked page provides no contact information, very little details about her, and links to other posts written by her on the website. She is found on LinkedIn, however, and she is an associate editor at First Quarter Finance, a writer for Clever Girl Finance, and a co-founder of DollarSanity. She graduated in 2015 from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor’s in professional writing and a minor in literature. While she doesn’t seem to have a particular focus on monetary topics, she does have a lot of experience writing for various financial websites and organizations. It also makes sense that Clever Girl Finance has information and more credibility when providing information on the pink tax. The article itself presents an abundance of information, broken down into multiple smaller sections to make the information easier to digest.
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