Beauty and the C-suite

Virginia Business’ July issue cover art represents a significant amount of time and thoughtful planning — especially in considering what image we want to convey to you, the reader.

From our viewpoint, the Women in Leadership cover should express strength and confidence — attributes that this year’s 38 award winners demonstrate daily as executives. A still photograph, of course, must achieve this without words, so we have to consider facial expressions, body language and wardrobe.

Work should be different, though, because in our jobs we should be judged solely on our merits. Unfortunately, life doesn’t usually work this way, and many women are judged on their looks, even when we’re unconscious of such bias.

Most women can probably point to a time when “pretty privilege” either penalized or benefited them, but let’s focus on women in high positions at work. They’re expected to look powerful and serious, as well as approachable and attractive in a traditional sense. But not too attractive, because that’s distracting. This cliche even applies to women in the C-suite and those who aspire to it, and it costs time and money.

If you picture an average CEO, chances are you’re thinking of a white man of a certain age. He may have gray or thinning hair and a few wrinkles. He’s not young, and no one expects him to look particularly young.

But women — including CEOs and presidents — often feel pressure to pay for expensive hair treatments, skin care regimens and other beauty treatments to diminish signs of aging. What’s more, they aren’t aiming to look like J.Lo at age 54; that’s just to achieve normal “maintenance.” 

Although conventionally attractive men and women outearn their peers by about 20%, according to a 2016 study by sociologists Jaclyn S. Wong and Andrew M. Penner, women considered attractive spend more money on grooming products than attractive men do, the study found.

On average, U.S. women spend $877 per year on their looks — including hair products, skin care, makeup and manicures — compared with men’s average spending of $592 a year, according to an Advanced Dermatology study in 2023.

Anecdotally, we all know women who spend a lot more than $877 on beauty, adding Botox injections and anti-aging facial creams to their regimens. Black women, according to multiple studies, spend much more on hair treatments than most white women do.

I am not going to denigrate any woman who has treatments that make her feel good. But it is a problem when a woman is spending money on beauty because she’s worried about her job.

Plus, older age isn’t the only difficulty women encounter in the workplace. A 2023 survey of 913 women leaders conducted by Harvard Business Review found that many experienced ageism throughout their careers. Dubbed the “never-right” age bias, women under 40 are often deemed underqualified for executive roles, and older women sometimes get tagged with perceptions of being out of date or overly strident. Middle-aged women get skipped over for promotions because hiring authorities assume they have too many family responsibilities to contribute fully at work.

Looks play into these stereotypes, too. If a woman looks younger than she is, she may be treated like an inexperienced girl, and what about a woman who wants to grow out her gray hair and forgo expensive coloring treatments every eight weeks? There’s a reason many women ages 50 and older talk about feeling invisible as they age, and that certainly extends to the workplace.

Nearly everyone says they want to be judged on their abilities versus what they look like. So, let’s get a move on.