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Women's empowerment
Appearance anxiety can affect women’s self-esteem – but it doesn’t have to be a drag on their performance at work
Current and aspiring women leaders may be self-conscious about their appearance, but strategies for developing an authentic professional style can redirect attention to their achievements, as they dress for comfort and confidence.
When Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, decided to upgrade her boardroom attire to tailored dresses with pearls and scarves, she received an unexpected note from a male director: he said her new look made her “more intimidating.” While the comment might have been meant as a compliment, it exemplifies the complex relationship between appearance and professional success that women leaders – and leaders-in-waiting – must navigate daily.
As part of the Strategies for Leadership program, aimed at senior women executives, which has been running at IMD for 20 years, we talk about self-defeating behaviors, and participants often bring up how self-conscious they feel about their appearance.
Recent research reveals an often-overlooked dimension: women face appearance-related expectations and constraints in the workplace that connect directly to inclusion issues. These appearance pressures can significantly impact women’s professional trajectories, creating what experts call the “beauty paradox.”
The double-edged sword of attractiveness
The relationship between appearance and career success isn’t straightforward. A 2024 study by economist Daniel Hamermesh identified a ‘beauty premium’ that translates to additional annual earnings of about $2,300. However, other research by Sheppard and Johnson reveals a particular side to this premium: the ‘femme fatale effect’, where attractive businesswomen are perceived as less trustworthy than their less attractive counterparts, particularly when delivering negative news.
This mistrust of beautiful women appears deeply rooted in gender stereotypes and the effect persists even when attractive women operate in traditionally feminine roles or industries, suggesting that the bias transcends the professional context. Notably, the same prejudice doesn’t apply to attractive male executives, highlighting a gender-specific challenge that reinforces negative historical stereotypes of the ‘evil seductress’.
“Perhaps nowhere is the gender disparity in appearance standards more evident than in the relationship between weight, gender, and income.”
Weight, gender, and income
Perhaps nowhere is the gender disparity in appearance standards more evident than in the relationship between weight, gender, and income. Research by Timothy Judge and Daniel Cable reveals a stark double standard: while men are financially rewarded for weight gain until reaching obesity, women face penalties for any weight gain, with very thin women experiencing the harshest penalties for initial weight increases. This disparity reflects deeply ingrained societal biases about gender and body image that continue to impact professional advancement.
The status consistency conundrum
The results of a revealing 2024 study by Christopher Marquis and colleagues, examining both US and Chinese labor markets, shows that attractiveness alone isn’t sufficient to guarantee advancement. The research, analyzing over 4,000 resumes across both countries, found that the impact of appearance depends heavily on its consistency with other status markers, particularly educational credentials.
Specifically, the study used two different experimental approaches: in China, researchers submitted 2,000 fictitious resumes through the job portal Zhaopin.com, subjectively varying the attractiveness of applicant photos, gender, and university status. In the US, hiring experts reviewed 2,020 similarly fictitious CVs. The findings across both countries revealed a clear pattern: attractive candidates from elite universities were favored for high-status positions, while less attractive applicants from non-elite institutions were preferred for lower-status roles.
However, “status-inconsistent” candidates – those who were either attractive without elite credentials or vice versa – faced the greatest challenges in securing positions at any level. These candidates created uncertainty for employers who found them difficult to categorize, making them less likely to be hired for positions at either level. While these findings are significant, the researchers note that more work is needed to understand how race and other status characteristics may influence these dynamics.
Family dynamics play a crucial role in the development of appearance anxiety and body image perceptions.
The early origins of appearance anxiety
Family dynamics play a crucial role in the development of appearance anxiety and body image perceptions. Research shows paternal teasing significantly predicts body dissatisfaction, while maternal teasing correlates with depression. Studies by Spiel and colleagues found that children as young as three to five years old already associate larger bodies with negative characteristics and thinner bodies with positive ones. More alarmingly, research by Damiano and colleagues revealed some five-year-old girls reporting dieting behaviors, indicating the thin ideal is internalized by the age of six.
This early conditioning creates lasting patterns, as author Glennon Doyle’s experience illustrates. Reflecting on her childhood, Doyle notes how being praised for her appearance taught her that “cuteness” was “a currency.” When adolescence brought physical changes, she experienced it as “a fall from grace… Like I had lost all of my currency,” which contributed to the development of a pre-teen eating disorder. Doyle’s experience demonstrates that women learn to connect appearance with social worth at a remarkably young age, creating the foundation for appearance anxiety that can later impact professional confidence and career advancement.
The science of appearance and performance
The psychological phenomenon of enclothed cognition demonstrates how the combined effect of wearing clothing and understanding its symbolic meaning influences both cognitive processes and behavior.
For example, when individuals wear a lab coat believing it belongs to a doctor (symbolic meaning) while physically experiencing wearing it (physical experience), they demonstrate enhanced attention and performance on detail-oriented tasks – as they would imagine a doctor would. This illustrates how clothing affects not just others’ perceptions, but also systematically changes the wearer’s mental processes, self-perception, and resulting performance through this dual mechanism of physical sensation and symbolic interpretation.
A 2023 study by Kim, Holz, and Vogel tracked more than 800 employee workdays and found that participants who dressed better than usual demonstrated higher self-esteem and improved task performance.
The research revealed multiple pathways through which clothing affects workplace performance. Employees who felt their attire was aesthetically pleasing reported increased self-esteem, while those who perceived their clothing as distinctive experienced enhanced confidence. Additionally, conforming to workplace dress norms boosted productivity through increased feelings of belonging.
THE POWER OF PROFESSIONAL UNIFORMS
The transformative effect of professional attire isn’t limited to corporate settings. Defense barrister (lawyer) Danielle Manson’s experience with the wig and black robe that all barristers are required to wear in the English courts offers a striking example of how she feels formal attire can enhance professional presence and confidence.
“Something happens to me when I put my wig and gown on and I kind of become a little bit more formal,” Manson explains. “There’s something about the way I talk as well. When I have it on, I’m much more focused, I’m much more direct. I could be sitting in a
conference room with my client next to the court without my wig on, just chatting in a relaxed, formal way. And I then put my wig on, and I stand a bit taller, and I speak a bit clearer… maybe it just gives me a bit of confidence.”
Manson’s experience perfectly illustrates the concept of enclothed cognition – how specific garments can trigger psychological and behavioral changes. Unlike the variable dress codes of corporate environments, she says her court attire serves as a standardized professional uniform that shifts focus from appearance to performance.
How green is your wardrobe?
Our choice and quantity of clothing also send signals about our sustainability mindset. In 2022, research from the Hot or Cool Institute in Berlin, a public interest think tank, suggested that a ‘sufficient’ professional wardrobe has about 74 garments, together making up 20 outfits, with an annual limit of five new clothing purchases. For many of us, I suspect, a closet inventory would likely reveal numbers well beyond these recommended guidelines.
While minimal to moderate makeup enhanced positive impressions, heavier application could decrease perceived trustworthiness in longer interactions.
Moving from ‘because I’m worth it’ to ‘skinimalism’
The impact of cosmetics adds another layer to the appearance equation. Research by Etcoff and colleagues found that makeup can significantly influence perceptions of competence and trustworthiness, but with diminishing returns. While minimal to moderate makeup enhanced positive impressions, heavier application could decrease perceived trustworthiness in longer interactions.
So too much makeup is a disadvantage and, consistent with these findings is the emergence of what beauty industry experts call “skinimalism” – a movement promoting minimalist beauty routines that prioritize authenticity over perfection. Nicola Moulton, editorial director at Beauty Pie, notes that this trend reflects women’s increased confidence in the workplace, with ‘one and done’ products gaining popularity among busy professionals. The movement aims to reduce daily skincare routines to two or three essential steps, challenging Instagram-fueled pressures of makeup-heavy ‘perfection’ with a more practical, authentic approach to professional appearance.
Actions and self-reflections for women leaders
Be aware of how your own aspects of appearance anxiety manifest themselves and think about how you can redirect attention to your achievements and expertise.
- Reflect on how you can develop an authentic professional style that aligns with organizational culture while prioritizing comfort, confidence, and sustainability.
- Build strong professional networks and mentoring relationships that provide support in navigating appearance-related challenges.
- Choose attire strategically to enhance cognitive performance and focus – think ‘lawyer’s wig and robe’.
- For all parents – think carefully about how you praise your daughters to set them up for future success – bearing in mind that cuteness is not a reliable, sustainable currency.
They will be as good at their jobs as the beauties. But they will be more loyal. And they'll be a good deal cheaper, too.
Removing appearance from the competence equation
The key challenge ahead is bridging the gap between a positive emerging workplace culture and the persistent reality of biases in recruitment and advancement – which sometimes include judgment about the appearance of the candidate or colleague.
As Lucy Kellaway pointed out in a Financial Times opinion column more than a decade ago, if women must continue navigating complex appearance expectations – from hair color to voice pitch to body size – the rational response would be for employers to actively seek out candidates who don’t fit conventional beauty standards, as “They will be as good at their jobs as the beauties. But they will be more loyal. And they’ll be a good deal cheaper, too.” While meant ironically, this observation underscores the fundamental inefficiency of allowing appearance biases to intrude further into the professional workplace.
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