It’s called “Lookism.” That’s the name for what happens in the job interview process when the way a candidate looks and presents themselves significantly affects whether they get the job. It can be the way they are dressed, the makeup on their face, the handbag at their feet or the style of their hair.Ursula McGeown's approach is remarkably sensible, actually: rather than trying to convince employers that they shouldn't favor candidates who can groom themselves appropriately, she's started a charity to help poorer women dress and groom well.
It can be a myriad of tiny little aesthetic details, all of which subtly affect discrimination in the hiring process. In 2006, a study by the National Association of Colleges and Employers found that 73 percent of employers admitted that grooming has “a lot of influence” on whether they would hire a candidate.... This is what Ursula McGeown, CEO of Dress for Success Sydney, wants to end.
That's Why You Wear A Suit And Tie
A new workplace prejudice is identified: 'lookism.'
If defense lawyers can figure this out, you'd think people advising job applicants might. You won't catch a defense lawyer moaning about how unfair it is that his chances with the jury are improved if he springs for a suit for his client and makes him get a haircut.
ReplyDeleteI think this is one of those bits of wisdom that keep being re-discovered. The interesting question is why it keeps being forgotten.
ReplyDeleteAnyhow, I'm glad this reality is being highlighted and I hope it encourages women to donate their work-appropriate clothes to the organization. But Dress For Success in the US has been around since 1997. Heck, I even recently read a romance novel where part of the plot turned on someone who volunteered at this type of organization and a woman she helped with a job search. And, of course, way back in the dim mists of time, there was John T. Molloy and his books Dress for Success (1975) and The Women's Dress for Success Book (1977). According to Wikipedia:
Molloy's advice was unusual because they ran actual tests by showing drawings to people and compiling their perceptions of the impact of the clothes. In The Women's Dress for Success Book, he stated, "This is the most important book ever written about women's clothes, because it is based on scientific research, not on [the author's] opinion."
What was discovered is still included in "advice" articles today: Dress like you already have the job. Respondents subconsciously judged the clothes to see that the wearer fit in with other employees. Molloy frankly stated that the attempt to "look like" current employees posed a special challenge for women and minority applicants in the contemporary (1977) reality of a white, male-dominated workplace.
I've always been sorry that women didn't take Mr. Molloy's advice about how to dress. I'm kinda tired of news, sport, and entertainment shows where the men show up in suits and ties and the women show up in short, sleeveless dresses. I suppose it's a sign of my advancing age but my reaction is usually, "Bless her heart, she must be freezing to death, poor thing."
@ Elise - but that's TV. There are probably some other places where the rules are that different for men's and women's dress, but most places expect similar formality or style. If anything, men can get away with dressing down, especially if they know they are too valuable to fire. No woman wears those things at the hospital I work at. Even dressing informally, which many psychiatrists do, has an art to it.
ReplyDeleteBreaking the code and telling it to poor people, or those not to the manner born, is a great service. Helping them get those things is even better.
@T99 - I have accompanied many people to court. Many have the same bad reason for not dressing better: they believe that being allowed to be themselves is more important. It seems like a capitulation to authority to be told how to dress. Something like that attitude may be part of how they ended up committing crimes, even if stupidly and unintentionally, in the first place. Dressing up is a statement of I get it now. This was important. I've learned my lesson. I wish to obey the rules of society now. That is meaningful to a judge or jury, and it should be. Something similar is at play at a job interview. To show up as a potential elementary-school teacher with ratty clothes is to say I don't like how you do this here. My way is better. Maybe it is better, but you'll have to open your own school to try that out.
AVI - I object to the discrepancy between the way men and women dress on those shows because, to me, it says the men are there because their professional expertise is valued while the women are there because their appearance is valued.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I also think that TV sends messages to everyone about how to dress in a work setting. Perhaps those messages have more influence on women who are not to the manner born.
...73 percent of employers admitted that grooming has “a lot of influence” on whether they would hire a candidate....
ReplyDeleteYewbetcha. Count me a lookist. If a prospective employee has so little respect for the culture of my company, so little respect for my imperatives, is so insistent on the importance of himself over that of my company's needs, I certainly can't count on him to work assiduously to satisfy the needs of my company.
And: as the prospective employer, I get to define "slovenliness," among a host of other things related to working for me, and the prospective employee does have to comply--it's my money he wants, after all, not his.
Eric Hines
I love chapel days at my Day Job because all the students are dressed in coats and ties or scarves (girls). Almost no behavior problems and everyone pays more attention in class. So add me to the lookist list.
ReplyDeleteLittleRed1
A woman's business suit is a great tool for being taken seriously. It doesn't have to be expensive, it just has to fit Molloy's description: dirndl skirt, mid-knee length, blazer and blouse with a neckline no lower than a normal second button. No more than three pieces of jewelry, including a wedding ring, if any. A small woman should be loaded down with every possible authority symbol. The appearance of a woman's business shoe, or pump, hasn't changed in 50 years.
ReplyDeleteAdd practiced, subtle makeup applied before leaving home every day, and either a good haircut or an updo. The whole thing can be pulled together in 30 minutes, including breakfast and makeup.
The total picture says "I mean business."
Valerie
I was perplexed when a guy friend asked me if I wasn't worried about wearing heels that might make me taller than the guys I worked with. Um, no? I wasn't dressing to attract the offer of a date. There's some essential confusion here.
ReplyDelete@ Elise. Fair points.
ReplyDelete" If a prospective employee has so little respect for the culture of my company, so little respect for my imperatives, is so insistent on the importance of himself over that of my company's needs, I certainly can't count on him to work assiduously to satisfy the needs of my company."
ReplyDeleteYep- this exactly. If people don't understand this, maybe they ought to consider that they aren't very perceptive, and that might be a problem.