Closing a Consumer Gender Gap : Discrimination: Nader group’s book urges women to be sophisticated about unfair price differences.

Women are getting a raw deal at the cash register, paying more than men for everything from cars and dry cleaning to haircuts and health care, according to a report released Monday by a group led by consumer advocate Ralph Nader.

Women earn an average of 74 cents for every $1 earned by men, but a woman can expect to shell out $200 to $400 more for a car than a man would, according to “Why Women Pay More: How to Avoid Marketplace Perils,” a book published by Nader’s Center for Study of Responsive Law. A black woman would pay nearly $500 more for the same car than a white man, the book contends.

When it comes to insuring the car, women over age 25 pay the same as men even though women have fewer accidents, said the book’s author, Frances Cerra Whittelsey, a former reporter for Newsday and the New York Times.

“There is an element of suckerism,” Whittelsey said at a Washington news conference launching the book, which is available from the Nader group, not bookstores. Although Whittelsey put much of the blame on “a long cross-cultural tradition of marketplace exploitation of women,” she also pointed a finger at women who have not educated themselves about money matters as well as they should.

Charges about overcharges are nothing new. A 1990 study by Northwestern University found that women and blacks are likely to pay more for cars than do white men, and well-publicized suits have been filed in recent years against department stores, dry cleaners and even a children’s hair salon that maintained different pricing lists for different genders.

“It’s a very serious problem,” said Los Angeles lawyer Gloria R. Allred, who has represented plaintiffs in many of the best-known lawsuits.

“Women in general earn less than men simply because of their gender, and (businesses) are charging women more simply because of their gender,” Allred said. “They’re getting us coming and going. I think it’s double discrimination.”

Whittelsey’s book, which mixes discrimination reports with consumer tips, lists several examples of what its promotional literature calls “fraudulent and harmful practices women face in the marketplace.”

Among the book’s contentions:

* Dry cleaners charged women an average of 27.3% more than men to launder and press a white cotton shirt, according to a survey by the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs.

* A man’s knit shirt is almost always less expensive than the same style in the women’s department.

* For haircuts, two out of three shops in New York charged women $20 for basic shampoo, cut and blow dry, while charging men $16.

While the women’s movement has focused on employment discrimination, “I don’t think they have looked sufficiently at the marketplace,” Whittelsey said.

Allred said she often advises women who believe that they suffered from marketplace discrimination to file a suit in small claims court, which does not require a lawyer. California has a relatively strong civil rights law that provides $250 in damages for each violation, she said.

By filing suit “they can teach a lesson and get a policy changed,” Allred said.

“Why Women Pay More: How to Avoid Marketplace Perils” is available for $10 a copy from Ralph Nader’s Center for Study of Responsive Law, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, D.C. 20036.

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The Associated Press contributed to this story.

Getting a Grip on Your Money

Here are some tips on taking better charge of your money:

* Be assertive, but calm, and be prepared to walk away when negotiating with sellers.

* Learn about your retirement plan.

* Be prepared to take care of all household and family financial needs without a husband.

* Know how to deal with an attorney.

* Be alert to advertising gimmicks that attempt to equate fashion products with social or job success.

* Make an issue of price differences in men’s and women’s clothing, haircuts, dry cleaning and other goods and services when necessary.

* Learn which agencies of government to take complaints about consumer fraud and discrimination.

Source: “Why Women Pay More,” Ralph Nader’s Center for Responsive Law