8th May 2018
“Price Has No Gender” – awareness raising campaign to change different pricing for men and women

The Office of the Equal Opportunities Ombudsperson in Lithuania just started the “Price Has No Gender” campaign to raise awareness about the fact that the same beauty and leisure services are still priced differently for women and men, even though it is against equal treatment laws in Lithuania.

Before launching the campaign, the Ombudsperson’s Office carried out a pilot study and found out that in most hairdressing salons a haircut for women is 23%-43% more expensive than for men, while a manicure is usually more expensive when a client is male. For a manicure men pay 10% more than women but a pedicure is even more expensive – prices are up to 40% higher for men.

The Office is actively encouraging providers of goods and services to update their prices according to the objective criteria and make them gender-neutral, since every client, regardless of gender, has individual needs. For instance, hairdressers are now asked to set the prices of haircuts according to the products necessary for a particular haircut, the style and complexity of a haircut, instruments used and so on. The Office aims to change the habits of “gender pricing” and make sure that the client’s gender no longer affects the price of a service received.

Now the Office calls social media users to post and report such instances on Facebook using special hashtag #KainaNeturiLyties. (#PriceHasNoGender).