Danielle Kurtzleben considers a few hypotheses:

…women develop “relationships” with brands and are more brand-loyal than men. If that’s true, it could explain why women might pay more for a razor that’s priced too high.

And in some cases, there are legitimate differences between men’s and women’s clothing. According to Kebba Gaye, a managing partner at The Press Dry Cleaning and Laundry in Washington DC, high-priced ladies dry cleaning has to do with actual differences in the clothing. Men’s dress shirts tend to be standard in shape and material — often cotton, with two long sleeves, one button-up front, maybe a pocket or two — and one machine can press all of them.

Women’s shirts, on the other hand, are far more varied — sleeveless, rayon, cap-sleeved, buttoned, silk, pullover — and can’t all be handled the same.

“The reason a woman’s shirt is $5 versus $1.85 for men is because of the different types of shirt,” Gaye says. But he says he does make exceptions: “If men wear a polyester like Hawaiian shirt, then they’ll have to pay more, too.”