The rules of the cafe Picture: FacebookA Melbourne cafe that introduced an 18 per cent gender pay gap surcharge in 2017 say they became “the punching bag of the internet”.
A vegan cafe in Melbourne, Australia, has closed its doors two years after introducing an 18 per cent “man tax”.
The cafe, called Handsome Her opened in 2017 and made international headlines with its unique way of tackling the gender pay gap issue.
It's owners asked men to pay an 18 per cent premium one week a month and advertised rules on a chalkboard that included “women have priority seating” and “respect goes both ways”.
The “tax” paid by male diners went to charity organisation Elizabeth Morgan House Aboriginal Women’s Services.
Not strictly enforced.
However, cafe owner Alexandra O’Brien said in August two years ago that the tax wasn’t strictly enforced.
“If people aren’t comfortable paying it or men don’t want to pay it, we’re not going to kick them out the door. It’s just a good opportunity to do some good,” Ms O’Brien said.
Owners revealed the cafe’s imminent closure in a post on Facebook, and told of how they expected the rule to make a stir.
But they didn't expect the wide scale response it received.
“We were just one little tiny shop on Sydney Rd that was trying to carve out a swathe of space to prioritise women and women’s issues, and suddenly we became the punching bag of Melbourne and the internet.”
Online backlash.
Owners said they tried not to engage with negativity online, but were happy to discuss the policy respectfully in house.
“When we learnt that it wasn’t only men’s rights activists targeting us, yet people from within our own communities, we encouraged respectful and robust debate,” they wrote.
“We encouraged a range of diverse opinions from all intersections of society and insisted that people critique their inner fear of conflict with inquisitiveness and openness, rather than hostility. We do not believe in the age-old practice of silencing women as a way of stifling debate and avoiding conflict.
“We embrace conflict and leaning into the discomfort and think the world would be a better place if people would stop apportioning blame to others and start taking responsibility for their own contributions. If only we approach difficult discussions with a commitment to seek to understand rather than just being understood.”
According to the Australian Federal Government’s own statistics, the gender pay gap for full time workers is 14.1 per cent. With women earn on average $239.80 per week less than their male counterparts.
