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Shannon Stapleton / Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks to students at Dhaka International School.
For women and their careers, it’s often not about what they do but how they look. More proof of that came last week.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made headlines around the world not for anything she did but because she appeared without makeup on a trip to Bangladesh.
“Hillary Clinton addresses ‘au naturale’ liberation,” said political blog The Drudge Report, while trend site Styleite.com declared that Clinton “just wants to be normal and do things like wear her hair in a scrunchie, party with her girlfriends and go out without a stitch of makeup.”
The kicker was England’s Daily Mail, which said Clinton’s moment sans makeup made her look “tired and withdrawn.”
Similarly former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks drew angry comments Friday not just for her role in a phone hacking scandal but for her appearance, especially her curly red hair, when she testified before a British government inquiry led by Lord Justice Leveson.
AFP/Getty Images
Former News International CEO Rebekah Brooks, testifies at the Leveson Inquiry.
Here are some of the popular Brooks tweets for the day:
- A date for your diary / Rebekah Brooks, at the inquiry / Hair and temperament, fiery / Words, liary
- Rebekah Brooks. We get it. You have lots of curly red hair, but wearing Orphan Annie's dress to the Leveson hearing? Seriously?
There’s even a Facebook page dedicated to Brooks' hair, called Rebekah Brook's hair is so big because it's full of secrets.
It goes to show that no matter how high up in business or politics a woman gets — or how hard she falls — in the end the focus is often about how she looks and not what she does.
“We’re still held to a double standard,” said Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who produced the 2011 documentary “Miss Representation” about the underrepresentation of women in powerful positions.
“It’s tragic,” she said. “We have an obsession with women’s looks. Unfortunately our culture has bought into this whole double standard that a women’s value is her beauty not her capacity to lead.”
The Look: Hillary Clinton doesn't care if you see her without makeup
Women certainly feel the pressure to look good. Nearly half of women don’t feel good about themselves unless they’re wearing makeup, according to a study released this year by the Renfrew Center Foundation, a nonprofit that focuses on eating disorder research and treatment.
The online study, conducted by Harris Interactive for Renfrew, polled nearly 1,300 adult women and found 44 percent "have negative feelings when they are not wearing makeup," including feeling self-conscious, unattractive or that something is missing. Only 3 percent said going without makeup made them feel more attractive.
“Wearing makeup to enhance one’s appearance is normal in our society and often a rite of passage for young women,” said Adrienne Ressler, national training director for Renfrew and a body image expert. “There is concern, however, when makeup no longer becomes a tool for enhancement but rather a security blanket that conceals negative feelings about one’s self-image and self-esteem.”
Many women trying to climb the ladder of success believe they need to enhance their looks or face career doom.
“This goes to the heart of what we still see in the work world today,” said Nancy Mellard, general counsel for business services company CBIZ, which offers a program to develop of women professionals through focused leadership, mentoring and networking. “Whether you’re coming up the career path or at the height of your career like Clinton, we still see women, certainly more than men, judged on appearance not accomplishments.”
While blatant discrimination in the workplace is less common than it was 20 years ago, she said, there are still subtle biases that may be hardest to combat.
TODAY Style: Kathie Lee, Hoda dare to bare (their faces)
One study sponsored by the Women’s Media Center and She Should Run, a group advocating for more women in public leadership, found that sexist comments about female candidates, including critiques on appearance, lead voters to question how effective they would be.
Often the people bashing how women look are other women. “We’re some of the worst,” Mellard said.
Newsom agreed. “It speaks to our own insecurities. We are complicit and have also bought into this, and the only way to change things is for women to start seeing each other more as sisters and supporting, not judging each other.”
TODAY's Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb have nothing to hide. The co-hosts bare it all and wear no makeup on the show. See who else is exposed without makeup.
Judging each other based on looks, however, is a reality we all have to face because there’s a "beauty benefit" for men as well as women in the workplace.
“Research by economists has shown that ‘beautiful people’, both men and women, have higher pay than less attractive people, holding constant many other factors about the individuals,” said Anne York, associate professor of economics at Meredith College’s School of Business. “So it really does pay for everyone to look good for work.”
“In the case of Hillary Clinton, though, it was quite ridiculous to me that when she went with a natural face, which millions of men do every day, that it made the news with close-up photos of her face," she added. " While her appearance made a lot of news, I don’t think that is necessarily bad if it can start a conversation on accepting more women with a natural appearance.”
Of course, men can fall victim to image-bashing as well.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s hoodie has been a hot topic on social media lately. But unlike attacks on Clinton’s face or Brooks’ hair, there’s little fear hoodiegate will undermine the main power base in the business world today – rich white guys.
Related:
Have you and your spouse ever competed for the same job?
Facebook IPO pits Wall Street suits against the hoodie
Leave a Comment:
It's human nature, folks perfer to look at pretty whether its male or female. I've been working for a living since I was 17 and pretty works; unfortunately. I've seen pretty women with out a college education and less experience get promoted over a not so pretty woman with a degree and loads of experience time and time again. It's sad but true and yes those pretty women used their gender and looks to get there. And it's not going to change, its human nature. Both genders have to work hard to stay one step ahead of the younger, prettier folks coming up from behind. It is unfair, but its human nature. As for Hillary, who cares? She's a good ole boy from way back. And she's no beauty, even 30 years younger. I've often wondered what Bill saw in her. Take a look at Merkel, definetly not a pinup, but she can, and does the job her country voted her in to do. It's the sad thing that we as a nation tend to vote for the pretty candidate. It's why Ron Paul will never get elected despite the fact that his message is a good one.
Maybe you mean "looking the part/role"? I notice that both men and women who look most like their career stereotype get ahead faster. Of course this is not always the case. Its just that I think this is more the case than not when we look at successful people. Of course, we also overlook those who fail to make the grade and have the looks... just not the talent. There are plenty of those folks out there too,
Kate, what you say is true, unfortunately.
Abraham Lincoln never would have had a chance of getting elected today.
Too ugly.
I just simply love women. Their soft and sweet, smell good and damb tasty Yummy. Unless your fat and ugly then your out a here!
Ok, sorry, I'm mostly kidding. People please dont ever forget that all of us have feelings and all of us like to be liked. I do love and respect most women. Its the way I was raised I guess. Some day I'll find one that works with me, not on me or for me.
My personal experience has been that women have been far more sabotaging and catty towards other women than a matter of male sexism towards women in the work place. Men are not the ones buying those objectifying fashion magazines to measure women. Men are not the ones demanding women buy 3 inch heels at gun point. Men do like what's served up, but they are not the cooks.
Nope but they buy the other objectifying magazines that have less clothes and airbrushed models with fake body parts to widen the gap of how real women should look.
Women are brutal toward each other. I think that most men could not care less whether women wear makeup unless they were hired for their looks.
It's all about presentation. Not only in the workforce, but social life. A lot of people cry "Foul!" when they get dinged or criticized for their appearance, but in turn still judge others by their appearance.
In the end, I was 280lb and wearing baggy clothes, and hardly got noticed, and never got a 2nd look much less a phone number. Now at 210lb and still wearing baggy jeans but pressed polo shirts, always cleanshaven and hair brushed and gel'd up, I not only get phone numbers, but have gotten some interesting offers.
Look, the first law of attraction is appearance. If it wasn't, then you'd never see guys like me still single. No criminal record, no drug or alcohol use, successful career history, a 'family first' mindset, and no anger/violence issues.
The clothing change has resulted not only in offers, but also garnered me a promotion, as well as being put in front of a customer who said I looked more 'together' than the last person, and that's the only reason they renewed their contract.
Looks matter. Deal with it.
That is the reason why JP Morgan lost 2 billion.
i think you're missing a point with trying to overlook a woman's appearance.....
first, women learned since they are babies that looks matter and by having good looks or at least trying to have good looks with make-ups etc, you automatically win extra points without even having to try anything harder..... it's like free money lying around, it will be real dumb not take it..... so if you say because you're a modern woman and therefore you should not be judged by your looks anymore, i'd say you're a really dumb woman for not taking advantage of what is free to you, courtesy of the world full of dumb men.
secondly, men are dumb, and it may be because men are dumb they can only appreciate a woman's looks so too bad for the uglies. then again there are smarter men, and smarter men will reason as the above and conclude ugly women = dumb women
either way women get their legs up the competition, be it other women or men, simply by looking good, and so smarter women will take advantage of it, dumber women, like this author... simply complain of discrimination, for a unique god-given feature that men cannot compete on fairly, why oh why....
Showed my dog the Hillary picture here and he got a woodie.
dats one sad doggie!
OMG !! Can't blame Bill one bit for taking up with Monica - I wonder what he's doing in his spare time while "Over-the-Hill-ary" is globetrotting ??
When I was in school, if a girl was really ugly, one guy would say to another - she is so ugly, I wouldn' t f-ck her with your dick !
I'm a 29 year old, very attractive female, and I resent the comments on here. I have an engineering degree, a Finance MBA, and my CMA. I work my pretty little *ss off to make sure that people take me seriously. I do not wear low cut shirts or otherwise inappropriate clothing. And I've still been accused by jealous colleagues of having slept my way up the ladder. For the record, I've never even kissed anyone at work - much less slept my way anywhere. It is a major pain in the tail that I have to be better than the men I work with in order to prove that I'm more than my looks.
While your company is making way for your advancement... someone else will be displaced. If you are that good... then all is fair the way I see it. I'm a white male and working JUST AS HARD as you. My female VP sees advancement of women et. al. as a top priority. My organization is bending over backwards to promote women, minorities, gays, etc... so don't get me started.
You're invited to the pity party Friday night... I won't be there. I'm also not going around bitching because of company priorities. Is my business... you prove yourself or you are out. Ineptitude takes care of itself.
Lily - I like that you brought up your pretty little *ss. I think you got the idea now !!
and one day you'll be 40 and can't (easily) sleep your way to the top anymore you'd wish you had not been so naive when you were 29.
everybody judges everybody but the thinking between the sexes is different.
If a man is plain, homely and gross women just look through him. If he happens to be charming, all is forgiven.
If a woman is somewhat physically flawed, men act as if she's committed a crime. If she happens to be charming, men think she's hitting on them.
I would agree with your first point...that thinking is different between the sexes. But what you're saying is really generalized and judgemental....and just not true.
women shouldnt wear makeup -- men dont.
This is true of men too. they actually plotted a correlation between men's salary and height. Taller, handsomer men make more money.
Also, has this author seen a charactature of the president (apparently he has freakishly large ears) or Jay Leno (who obviously has a freakishly large chin). The media considers looks a big factor in both sexes. Why do we need to make this a gender thing?
I dispute the statement where she says men go with a natural face every day. That is not true, we are expected to be clean shaven and if a man is not clean shaven he most certainly deals with the same look based judgements, mountain man, beach bum, etc.
Just another narcissist who can't see past the end of her nose.
The difference here is that if I don't shave and somebody does throw such a judgment at me it hardly gets noticed and if it does it elicits a F*** you, I could care less, or yeah this is my look for today response, not some woah is me everyone thinks I'm a hag self-destructive judgement.
Looks matter for both men and women.
Republican women are better looking than liberal Democrats.
Dean - agree ! I like the women on Fox News - intelligent and mostly all beautiful !! MSNBC has some of the weirdest looking broads on their shows. MSNBC must have a machine somewhere that cranks out weird looking women just for them.
I have worked with and for some of the ugliest men in the universe both physically and emotionally who thought they were god' gift to the world. It is unfortunate that the same standards don't apply to both sexes.
She'll look better after a few more cocktails.............
Robert - there are not enough cocktails in the world ........!!
Simple answer: Stop giving management positions to Neanderthal men.
to The Truth - men have simple brains - women are much more complex but lose it when there is no consensus and women give mixed messages. How many times have we heard that when a woman poses nude for Playboy, it gave her a feeling of "empowerment". Then you want to be taken serously for your brains and not let sexual attractiveness be an issue.
Say what ????
Men ARE simple: Feed them and f*ck them, and they are happy.
Oh, and big screen tv wouldn't hurt, either...
What a quaint sexist screed. Women AND men are judged by their looks in the workplace. Maybe the writer of the article has been too wrapped up in her victimhood to notice, but men are also penalized in the workplace for inappropriate appearance, whether it is failing to shave for a few days, wearing rumpled suits, wrinkled shirts, or scuffed shoes, or not bothering to get a timely haircut or to trim or clean their nails.