GENDER AND CONSUMPTION: "FEMINA OECONOMICA". A REFLECTION ON "TAMPON TAX" WITHIN AN EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK (original) (raw)
This paper is an empirical work focused on consumption as a social action through the interpretative means, as an individual strategy of inclusion/exclusion and as a mean to the identity construction. Our research addresses gender issues related to consumer behaviour. Gender and consumption indeed play a major role from a sociological perspective in the way social relationships are constructed. To illustrate this, we chose to focus on the proposal to axe VAT on tampons and menstrual cups (dubbed "Tampon Tax") as a specific case study, due to its recent relevant to the political agenda of many European countries. Our main hypothesis posit that the "Tampon Tax" exemplifies a tendency to consider gender-specific essential goods as luxury goods, hence expanding the gender-gap. However, each European country seem to tackle the "Tampon Tax" debate in a peculiar manner. Within the directive 2009/132/EC that prohibits the zero VAT on certain products, some countries charge tampons at a reduced rate (France, UK), while others charge the standard rate (Italy, Greece). The aim of our work is to review the European discourse on "Tampon-Tax" in order to (1) provide theoretical and empirical support to our thesis and (2) to assess potential contradictions within the political action and its effect on the public opinion as well as on women's movements in the UE. Through the mixed method research, we will make use of database and price trends from the European Union countries, as well as a qualitative analysis of the Italian public debate within a broader European framework. In conclusion, our results describe, "Tampon Tax" as a useful vehicle to tackle questions related to the relationship between gender and consumption.
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