Women in management who wear provocative clothing are seen as less competent

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Females who wear provocative clothing at work are more likely to be seen as incompetent than those that dress more conservatively by other females, finds research from the University of Hertfordshire.

Participants, consisting of UK female students and employed females, viewed images of females who were given job titles of either senior manager or receptionist and who were wearing clothing in slightly different ways (more or less provocatively) and rated each picture on a number of items, based on their first impression.

Researchers found that only women with the higher status (senior manager) as opposed to low status (receptionist) were the ones who were judged harsher in the provocative clothing.

The range of clothing choices available to women compared to men, presents women with the challenge of balancing attractiveness and professionalism at work and this study investigated how minor manipulations in women’s work clothing, for example shorter skirts and lower buttoned blouses, affect how they are judged in the workplace.

Karen Pine, lead researcher said: “Women who even subtly sexualize their work attire may be detrimentally affecting the way they are perceived by other females. We manipulated very small changes in how clothing is worn and so our findings have clear implications for working women about how their appearance is perceived by other women.”

The study, entitled ‘Unbuttoned: The interaction between provocativeness of female work attire and occupational status’ has been published by Springer. Read it here: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11199-015-0450-8

ENDS

For more information, please contact Kelsey Arif, University of Hertfordshire Press Office on 01707 285163, Email: k.arif3@herts.ac.uk  

Notes to Editor

There were 144 participants involved in the study, which took place in the University’s Psychology department.

Neil Howlett, Research Fellow, was also leading on this research.

About the University of Hertfordshire

• The University is the UK’s leading business-facing university and an exemplar in the sector.  It is innovative and enterprising and challenges individuals and organisations to excel. 

• The University of Hertfordshire is one of the region’s largest employers with 2,700 staff and a turnover of over £238 million.

• With a student community of 25,300 including 2,800 overseas students from 100 different countries, the University has a global network of over 195,000 alumni.

• It is also one of the top 100 universities in the world under 50 years old, according to the new Times Higher Education 100 under 50 rankings 2014.

• For more information, please visit www.herts.ac.uk

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