The Beauty Punishment

Imagine you're on the hiring committee for a job. Imagine you work in HR and do many of the pre-screenings for job applicants? How would you rate applicants who included a photo on their CV? Depends.

According to a recent Euro/Israeli study, you are more likely to be impressed by a male applicant who includes a photo, while you may regard a female applicant with a photo as "not serious" or attempting to "market herself via her appearance." Women who did not put their pictures on their CV got more call-backs about the job than women (both attractive and plain-looking) who included pictures. This has been attributed to "female jealousy" because the majority of applicant screeners are women working in HR.

This study recalled a conversation I once had with another woman who worked primarily in IT. She said she would always try to find out the gender of her main interviewer. If it was a woman, she would dress conservatively with her hair in a bun and slacks. If the interviewer was a man, she would wear her hair down and a skirt with heals. Maybe my friend was acutely aware of the "female jealousy" factor. However, if we take a systems gaze at this issue, we can actually better understand the causes of supposed "female jealousy."

Women live in a world where they are constantly and consistently objectified for their physical appearance. I remember a few years ago reading about how women who didn't wear make-up in a job interview were considered less competent (sorry, can't find the article now but I did find this).

Women grow up, as explained by the National Organization of Men Against Sexism:

• Where objectified images of women's bodies are everywhere - on TV, newsstands, in advertisements, movies, calendars.
• Where many women start to feel old and unattractive even in their 20's.
• Where women aren't taken seriously.
• Where even the youngest and most beautiful women often worry constantly, and cannot match in real life their photographed, objectified image.
• Where half-naked female bodies are displayed on walls, in public like objects, exposed female bodies used as markers of male territory, male turf... Immediate signals of discomfort, and of menace, for women.

Women constantly face having to compete with their looks. So, you might be thinking "well, they don't really have to, so they shouldn't buy into that mentality."  But that's not good either. Women who don't pay attention to their appearance can also face social marginalization. You always want to hit that sweet spot where you don't look too noticeable either way for being super attractive or super unattractive. In both situations, you could face negative consequences. Is it a far cry to see that this can easily translate into work politics, where insecurities come out?  I also wonder how work cultures contribute to this "female jealousy" factor. A good friend of mine recently contacted me in hysterics after enduring a long day of her male colleagues commenting on the attractiveness level of every woman on their floor and including the one above them. To put it nicely, the comments were extremely degrading and helped my friend feel isolated, demoralized, and disgusted.

Women dominate the HR field. In 1996, the U.S. department of labor found over 60% of human resources workers to be women and at that time, was projected to double. So to get to any job, it's safe to say you're likely going to have to get through a woman first.

So, what can employers and job applicants do?

1) Don't include a photo on your resume...unless you're in the acting/modeling profession.
2) If you're in HR or know someone who is, make sure they are aware of this tendency toward bias.
3) Promote women into non-HR positions of management while balancing the gender ratio in your HR department.
4) Stop talking about or commenting on the way your colleagues look at the office.
5) Incorporate sensitivity training with an emphasis on openness and non-judgment towards differences for all employees.

How far have women come? (The Stats)

Top full-time jobs for women in the US today are the same as they were in the 70s: 


-secretary
-waitress
-sales clerk


During their prime earning years U.S. women make 38% of what men make.


Men occupy 80-95% of decision-making positions in politics,business, military, religion, media, culture, entertainment.


20% of American women report having been sexually assaulted or raped.


25% of American women are physically/sexually attack by their current or former domestic partners.


85% of U.S. counties do not have abortion services. 


Pulled these from a Harper's article.

Babies Belong in Politics

Motherhood is constantly cited as one of the myriad of ways that women are hindering their own professional progress. I'm really pleased that European Parliament member Licia Ronzulli is debunking that myth. She was not politically motivated to bring her daughter to work, but it became clear, with all of the attention she attracted that doing so was a tremendous act of rebellion. Women, specifically mothers, must often hide their motherhood at work to either be taken seriously, fit into a male-centric culture, and/or to retain pre-baby levels of responsibility and authority.

Looks like Ronzulli has absolutely no scruples about reminding the European Parliament about why they are convening together. Her baby is a powerful reminder of the future. I wonder what kinds of social policies would be more likely passed with the added presence of babies in the room?

and: 

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While it is important to recognize that men too care about their families and children, traditional gender roles preclude men from having to be the constant care-takers of their children. Men less often have to face the guilt and social stigma that women face for going to work when they have small children. After all, mommy wars are real. Women often face social criticism, stigma, and even crippling internal guilt when they choose to work. More importantly, many women do not have the economic choice to stay home with the baby. Creating baby-friendly work environments and encouraging both men and women to cultivate family-open cultures in the work place will help facilitate more inviting workplaces for women. Frankly, I think it has the potential of helping us all connect to the deeper reasons of why we do work in the world.

How to Attract Women: A Systems Approach

Generalizing the Forrest While Looking at the Trees

Lately, I've been reading a lot of articles that go something like this:

"But we asked women to join the club and women still didn't join the club. Our conclusion? Women don't want to be in the club."

I'm using metaphor here. The "club" can stand for anything in this case but at Secretariain't, the club is business. The problem with this conclusion is that it is too narrow. It does not get to the root cause of gender imbalance in business. It does not ask "why?" Companies want more women and believe that women in their executive ranks is a good thing. They make promises and goals to increase these numbers and yet, continuously fall short of them. If companies want to further a constructive dialogue about achieving gender balance in the business world they will have to utilize a systems approach to understanding the lack of balance. When you do, it becomes clear that women "not wanting to join the club" is actually a symptom of a larger issue and not the root reason for the imbalance.

Systems thinking is challenging because it is complex. Humans tend to oversimplify, which causes us to lose site of the root causes for the huge systemic problems we want to solve (the complexity of climate change is a good example of this). The result is poorly designed ineffective solutions or no solution at all. The same thing happens when it comes to solving women's issues. Even calling them "women's issues" is oversimplifying, since limitations on women also create limitations for their families, which include men and sons. When you expand your gaze from families, you see that limitations for families create limitations in society. "Women's issues" further oversimplifies because it does not adequately express or capture the wide spectrum of impact that gender discrimination has when accounting for experiential differences due to race, class, sexual orientation, age...the list goes on.

What's the real problem? 

One story I heard recently was about a tech start-up that tried to hire two women who declined because they didn't want to take on the risk. In that individual instance, the women very well could have been risk averse for various personal reasons, yet "risk aversion," in this context, was offered as an explanation for why there are few women in the tech-sector. But this conclusion oversimplifies and plays into an age-old stereotype that women are too soft for business or too risk averse. In reality there really are no differences between male and female entrepreneurs. Plenty of men turn down start-up job offers every day because they don't see the venture being profitable and consider it too risky. Yet in this example, all women were generalized when two turned down the offer. I wonder why the founder of this start-up chose to generalize all women instead of considering the declined offer as a reflection on the strength of his business model?

These kinds of generalizations about women happen all the time in the business world. But, they don't really explain what the problem is and so they don't help male leaders to attract female business partners. In this instance, risk aversion could have been fueled by many things that are not related to what has been ascribed as innate qualities of gender, but the systemic impact of gender discrimination:

• women on average make less than men in their careers and cannot afford to take the same kinds of financial risks
• women take time out of the workforce to care for children and parents, which impacts their retirement savings, so a failed venture could have worse financial consequences for a woman 
• tech start-ups tend to be all-male and those all-male environments can feel unwelcoming and non-inclusive to women

So, if male business leaders want to attract women to their ranks, they'll be more successful by taking a wider gaze and looking critically at some of these systemic issues. Remember to talk to women. Listen to women. Keep asking, where is the root of the concern and then find the leverage points to resolve it and improve the offer.

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