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While it is true that many services are only USED by one sex (few men use tampons, at least not for their intended purposes), it is in most cases illegal to charge different prices on the basis of sex, race, sexuality, or several other things. The primary legislation governing sex discrimination is the Sex Discrimination Act 1975. The Act made a specific exemption for insurance companies provided they made the decision on the basis of actuarial data from a large enough dataset to be statistically significant. In 2003, the European Parliament attempted to pass a directive ending this, but the insurance companies lobbied strongly against the exemption being retained (and it was.) Whether you feel this is right is another matter. The following are deliberately provocative, to spur debate, by the way: - It is legal to offer a woman a discount on an insurance product compared to a man because it is demonstrable that women have fewer accidents. - It is illegal to offer an Asian a discount on an insurance product compared to an Afro-Carribean despite the fact that it is demonstrable that Asians have fewer accidents [1] - It is illegal to offer a purely gay man a discount on an insurance product compared to a bisexual despite the fact that it is demonstrable that gays have fewer accidents [1] [1] No idea whether they are that way round - I was just trying to come up with an example that demonstrated how we are allowed to use actuarial data in some areas but not others.

Source(s)

I am the Chief Technology Officer of an Internet Insurance company. I asked this question of our Compliance Director when I was going through my FSA Director's training.

by mark_harrison_uk2

2 years ago

Asker's Rating: 

Men can use them too!

by Sal*UK- 2 years ago

Its not discrimination, Its just that they calculate that women are a better risk, Like older drivers can be a better risk, they will still insure men and younger people.

by Acka- 2 years ago

Women are different with a documented difference in risk for the insurance company.

by John L- 2 years ago

There are products and services marketing to women only or men only all the time. Probably because it is the nature of their business. Insurance for women. Women usually have lower insurance premiums because they are in fewer serious accidents and receive fewer tickets than men.

by Heather D- 2 years ago

becuse men are crap drivers

by fizzdude- 2 years ago

Because guys dont make a big deal out of little things :-) (Im going to get soooo many thumbs down for that lol)

by Seco- 2 years ago

Its not classed as discrimination - they charge in line with what they would charge male drivers.

by The Ghost- 2 years ago

It;s not sexual discriminaton. All insurance companies can choose who they insure. Women and girls have less accidents, therefore less money is paid out in claims. These are statistics and have nothing to do with sex. Therefore it is perfectly acceptable.

by Ding Dong- 2 years ago

I often wondered how they could advertise in this way,but I bet they are no cheaper,just another gimmick

by josephrob2003- 2 years ago

I would assume that its similar to the way that insurance companies can charge people who smoke, or who have bad credit more money. Because its all about statistics. And stats show that the female gender usually costs insurance companies less, at least historically. But in time, history can change the stats. Make a name for yourself; challenge this rule. I heard that years ago someone challenged a bar saying that "Ladies Night" with free drinks for women discriminated against men, and I think they won. www ...

by the_answer_for_you- 2 years ago

sex discrimination law do not apply to insurance companies.

by LuckyWindy- 2 years ago

Because discrimination is necessarily bias in our society. In western countries it relies on the premise that a white male is dominant and females and other ethnic origins are 'kept down' When you think about it the whole concept it is insulting to gender and all other ethnics group in the suggestion that they need to be protected! Positive bias is baaaaaaaaad!

by interested_party- 2 years ago

Just as an aside to this Q, all the good points having been already made….. I remember a case in the UK a few years back where a woman took the local hairdresser to court for charging her more for a hairdo than her husband, even though both haircuts were of a similar style (shortish) and took the same time. The judge ruled that since women are more demanding than men when it came to hairdressing it was acceptable for them to be charged more. Relevance to this… as has previously been said, I don’t think it’s discrimination if it’s based on a factual (& provable) difference. I do know last year (may have been the one before) the EU wrote to every insurer asking for years and years worth of data on pricing by gender for motor insurance. So many co’s didn’t store their data that way the EU had to drop the whole idea.

by RAY- 2 years ago