Study: Sexy Attire Works Against Businesswomen

We knew that!  As reported in the December issue of Psychology of Women Quarterly, a study showed that sexy attire worn by women in the workplace works against them.  Test subjects rated a woman dressed in high heels and short skirts versus a woman dressed in conservative professional attire.  The woman in the sexy clothes was viewed as less competent, by both men and women. 

"A female manager whose appearance emphasized her sexiness elicited less positive emotions, more negative emotions, and perceptions of less competence on a subjective rating scale and less intelligence on an objective scale," the researchers write.  The research was led by Peter Glick, a professor of Psychology at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Of course women should dress professionally at work.  Of course you want people to take you seriously, and not be distracted by your bod.  Ladies (especially you recent college grads), ditch the tight clothes for work.  You're only hurting your own professional advancement. 

Comments

[BeenThereSeenThat]

This is all sooo very true. As a couple of examples, of the women I know who dressed "exposed" at work...one was constantly having sex with some random guy in the office, and was eventually highly disregarded both by the men (after her one-night stands) and by the women. She has eventually "moved on" and her career has been side-lined.

Another, married woman who dresses very alluringly "perky". Well, sadly, her attire ended up alluring the wrong guy. She ended up in an affair with one of the married execs. After a series of promotions, the secret of their affair is out, and well, she probably isn't moving anywhere fast now. The respect for her is dwindling fast.

However, I do know of one stunningly gorgeous woman (who has done modeling on the side too) who dresses just awesome--really cool, slick, stylish, "attractive" in a good way--and well...she is a major project manager for a large architectural firm. As her career progresses, people still respect her competence and admire her style.

That study is "right on", thanks for sharing!

[George Carty]

If I'd been doing this studied I would have added a third subject - a woman wearing Muslim hijab and jilbab.

This would have determined whether the problem with the short-skirt woman was immodesty (in which case the woman in Muslim-type clothing would be highly rated), or excessive femininity (in which case the woman in Muslim-type clothing would also be poorly rated).