My day job requires that I fill out a lot of forms for college students, including verifications of good student status for insurance companies that have good student discount programs. I rarely read the eligibility specifics past the part that pertains to me, but it was a slow day, so I skimmed through and found this little gem:
The Good Student Discount terminates at age 25 or if female, at the time of marriage, whichever occurs first.
Um, excuse me? Do women automatically become more reckless once they get married, and should no longer get discounts? How come a male can get married and still get this discount until age 25? Can anyone help me here, because I can't come up with one plausible reason for this rule to be in effect. This is a well known insurance carrier, and should know better. Or their lawyers should. And the form was revised 12-12-2005!
Looking forward to hearing your thoughts...
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
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2 comments:
There are still so many benefits that do this kind of thing. Insurance companies do it, too. How appalling! If I were you, I'd go to that vendor's Web site and submit a comment about their sexist attitudes. Do you remember the Hewlett Packard The Computer is Personal Again ad campaign that featured people like Shaun White, Mark Cuban, and Jay-Z's hands doing cool things with their computers? There were NO women in those commercials. By not including women, HP seemed to be saying that technology was a man's area. I wrote to HP about it, and it made me feel a whole lot better! Soon after I wrote, ads featuring Petra Nemcova, Princess Fiona from Shrek and Vera Wang appeared. I don't know if my complaint made that happen, but I absolutely felt like I did my part.
Consider potential implications in Massachusetts, as well: say two couples, all four recipients of the Good Student Discount and all 23, decide to get married. One couple, both men, continue to receive the discount in addition to whatever other income or aid they collect; the other, both women, lose a significant portion of change (and future savings) in this two year period.
That's a pretty problematic hypothetical. But thank goodness for same-sex marriage... fairness issues like this shine much-needed light on these antiquated and sexist assumptions still in place.
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