Well, it’s been pretty depressing in the gender pay gap camp this week. The latest research from the Institute for Fiscal Studies finds that UK women still earn an average 18% less than men, increasing further after motherhood. And oh yeah, on top of that us females have to ‘compete’ with male managers who’ve already got a 40% greater chance of bagging a promotion, according to a report by the Chartered Management Institute and XpertHR.
Sigh.
It appears that sheer work ethic and capability just isn’t enough to warrant equality in the work place in 2016. What changes need to be made? As clearly, any efforts to eradicate the gender pay gap are failing miserably.
Well, if recent (and completely ridiculous) results from a recent study is anything to go by – apparently slathering on makeup at work is the way to go if you want to earn more money. Yup, seriously.
According to a new research paper published, *Gender and the Returns to Attractiveness, sociologists Jaclyn Wong and Andrew Penner assessed over 14,000 subjects to find out whether there was any connection between physical attractiveness and their earnings. Drum roll…men and women considered to be better looking are scientifically proven to earn more £££. Sad, but unsurprising.
However, the findings delved deeper and found that perceived attractiveness was actually based on grooming, finding that women who splashed their hard earned cash on blow-dries, manicures and makeup actually earned more than women who did not. Whereas only half of the men in the study who were judged on their ‘attractiveness’ were based on their grooming habits alone. Translation: ‘grooming’ plays a way bigger role in boosting women’s earning power than men’s (who could get away with skipping their AM shaving routine, without it effecting their pay packet).
While team Grazia is all over the transformative power of a red lipstick, we’re totally unsupportive of the idea that women feel they need to stock up on beauty products in order to be successful. This is not the answer.
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