Washington: A research has revealed that acknowledging appearance may reduce bias when beautiful women apply for male-dominated jobs.
The study at the University of Colorado Boulder found that when an attractive woman applied for a job typically filled by men, like a construction job, and said, "I know I don't look like your typical applicant," or "I know there aren't a lot of women in this industry," and pointed out successes on her resume, she received higher ratings from reviewers than counterparts who made no mention of their looks.
Lead author Stefanie Johnson said that it turns out there's merit in the old Pantene ad, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful" and if a sufferer of female-beauty stereotyping addresses the issue, the perpetrator leaves behind preconceived ideas and is able to more clearly see her professional qualities.
The study also identified the two main types of sexism that cause people to mentally disqualify women from masculine jobs, one, dubbed "benevolent sexism" that is paternalistic and causes individuals to see women as incapable and in need of protection from job difficulties and physical challenges or dangers and the other, dubbed "hostile sexism," causes individuals to see women as violators of gender roles, encroaching on job turf that's rightfully male.
Johnson added that another issue they explored during the study was unattractive women who acknowledge their looks when applying for masculine jobs as there was no benefit to the acknowledgment.
The study is published in Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes.
