We spend our precious wages on beauty
treatments that help us look presentable for the office. But according to
researchers, if a woman is applying for a ' masculine' job, she really needn't
have bothered. Fashion style on bellasdress
Although being pretty will help those
applying for secretarial jobs, for other roles in which appearance is deemed
unimportant, attractive women are actually less likely to be recruited.
In job categories like director of
security, hardware salesperson, prison guard and tow truck driver, attractive
women were overlooked. In each of these jobs appearance was perceived to be
unimportant.
Lead researcher Professor Stefanie
Johnson, from University of Colorado Denver Business School, said: 'In these
professions being attractive was highly detrimental to women. '
But the research, published in the
Journal of Social Psychology, found beautiful people still enjoy a significant
edge on the whole. They tend to get higher salaries, better performance
evaluations, and higher levels of admission to college, better voter ratings
when running for public office and more favorable judgments in trials.
But in one narrow aspect of life, beauty
can be a hindrance, something researchers have called the 'beauty is beastly' effect.
In every other kind of job, attractive women were preferred. This wasn’t the
case with men which shows that there is still a double standard when it comes
to gender.
Handsome men are always at an advantage
and never discriminated against. Professor Johnson said: 'One could argue that,
under certain conditions, physical appearance may be a legitimate basis for
hiring. In jobs involving face-to-face client contact, such as sales, more
physically attractive applicants could conceivably perform better than those
who are less attractive.
However, it is important that if
physical attractiveness is weighed equally for men and women to avoid
discrimination against women.'
