Does Being Beautiful Really Help You Get Ahead In Life?

‘I’ve had a boob job and regularly have lip filler. I wear make-up every day, dye my hair blonde and use fake tan every week.'

You might think these are the words of a Love Island contestant or influencer, but actually these are the words of Jessica, a 29-year-old senior recruitment consultant from Manchester.

‘My image has definitely been favourable for my job because it’s client-facing,' she tells me, 'male managers are more likely to accept a face-to-face meeting request on LinkedIn from a young, attractive female.'

Jessica is not the only person who believes being beautiful can be an important component of ones career. Clarissa Farr, former headmistress of St. Paul’s Girls School, was in hot water last week for saying the exact same thing.

‘When you google the word CEO, the images are all white men with grey hair. Our idea of authority is still male,’ she told The Sunday Times last week, ‘There are certain women whose personal beauty makes their leadership acceptable who wouldn’t be able to hold the sway they do if they didn’t look the way they do… that just isn’t the same for men.’

Clarissa cited Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Legal & General financier Helena Morrissey as examples, concluding that ‘unfortunately, beauty is part of successful leadership for women in a way it shouldn’t be.’

Her comments were met with fierce backlash from various female powerhouses, with Germaine Greer stating this fact is not just true for women but men too. Annabel Denham, head of women’s entrepreneur group Female Founders Forum, said that suggesting women like Sheryl and Helena have advanced because of their looks versus their intelligence or aptitude ‘does a disservice’ to them – dubbing the Clarissa’s comments ‘insulting’.

And of course, that would be insulting – but that isn’t really Clarissa’s point, is it? Essentially, Clarissa is stating that as well as being intelligent, confident and talented in their jobs, women also have the added pressure to appear beautiful at all times. Because, without appearing to be sexually desirable to the (often) men whom work above us, men are easily threatened by female leadership.

In fact, it is not revolutionary at all to suggest that men – especially those in positions of power – treat women that fit the bill for socialised beauty norms with much more respect than women that don’t. Ask the many fat women, disabled women and openly gay women who have screamed about this for decades. The less you fit into societies heteronormative beauty standards – and the less desirable and attainable you are to cisgender heterosexual men - the worse you are treated across every facet of society.

That’s why Clarissa goes on to call for more women in leadership positions that don’t hold up to the pinnacle of female beauty, saying ‘we need to see more authentic, normal-looking female leaders such as Angela Merkel with uncompromising confidence that says, “This is who I am, this is what I am,” who are judged by their words and actions.’

Because, this added pressure – on top of everything necessary to succeed in your career as a woman – is felt by successful women everywhere. And so, often we conformbecause this is the world we live in, so how else will we provide for the lives we want?

‘I personally could never go to work without my hair or makeup done,’ says Joan Ellis, who spent 40 years working at top end advertising agencies in London, and now lectures in PR at Bournemouth University.

Joan has never gone under the knife to improve her appearance, but her commitment to maintaining a beautiful physical aesthetic – with make-up, hair styling and aerobics – was so strong that when working alongside a male colleague for some time, the duo became known as ‘Beauty and The Beast’ within the industry.

‘I think all the make-up, clothes, hair dye, it all added to ones confidence in an all-male environment and made sure there were no chinks in your amour,’ she says, ‘for me I had to make sure I was coming up with award-winning ideas for the ads, writing good copy and generally being really great in the job, but then there seemed to be another obligation that you had to look the role.’

Dr Sabika Karim, medical director and co-founder of Revere Clinics, feels the pressure too even in the medical industry. She has skin tightening treatments, botox in her frown lines and fillers to maintain a youthful appearance.

‘I don't want to look any different in the next ten or 20 years than I do now,’ she says, ‘I've got to look presentable 7-days a week, 24-hours a day, whether I’m on the school run or in a business meeting or talking to the most high-powered people. I’ve got to have that get-up-and-go youthful look.’

But of course, even when we do conform to those standards, we still face the balancing act of ensuring we're not too beautiful to be considered unintelligent.

'I may have won more face to face meetings with clients but over the course of my career it’s been a double-edged sword,' says Jess, 'I've had people essentially admit to my face that they didn't think I could do this kind of job because they'd wrote me off as a bimbo.'

Joan has felt the ill-effects too, with colleagues undermining her talent because of her appearance. 'One could say the "Beauty and The Beast" name was very flattering, but on another level when you're trying to do your best work and forge a career, to be reduced to two cartoon characters I found very demeaning.'

Essentially, in both having to appear beautiful but not too beautiful, women are forced to walk an impossible tightrope. You can’t wear too much make-up, but you must look made-up at all times. You can’t look like you’ve had work done, but you must maintain a youthful appearance. You can't appear to be a bimbo, but you must up-hold the image of a glitz and glam industry.

All of this effort we go to, all fueled by a system that wants us to be beautiful and then punishes us when we are. This is what Clarissa was explaining with her beautiful women hypothesis. And while it's easy to see why her quotes - when taken out of context - were condemned, it's important to remember she's talking about the status quo as it is not as she wants it to be.

Perhaps with women like her explaining this unfortunate truth, we can work to change it.

READ MORE: Facts about the sexism women face around the world...