netscape.com
Women who are flirts at work--wear short skirts, send flirtatious e-mail messages or even massage a man's shoulders--get fewer pay raises and promotions than women who don't exhibit such sexy behavior in the office, according to a new study from Tulane University.
USA Today reports that this is the first study to show the very real and negative consequences of gratuitous flirting in the office. The researchers questioned 165 women ranging in age from their mid-20s to 60 who had earned a Master's in Business Administration, specifically asking them to respond to 10 statements. These included questions on whether they had ever worn revealing clothing around clients or supervisors to get attention, crossed their legs provocatively in meetings with men, implied they were attracted to a man at work when they weren't, let men sneak a look down their blouse when leaning over a table, sent flirty or risqué e-mails, complimented a man at work by telling him he looked sexy or hot, or massaged a man's shoulders or back at work.
The results:
--49 percent admitted they tried to advance their careers by engaging in at least one of the 10 sexual behaviors, while the other half said they had never done any of these things.
--The women who had never used their sexual prowess at work had earned on average three promotions, compared with the two promotions earned by the women who had.
--Those who said they never used sexuality typically earned between $75,000 to $100,000, while those who exhibited sexual behavior were in the lower $50,000 to $75,000 range.
Most academic research concerning sex in the workplace has focused on sexual harassment; none of it until now examined the use of sexual behavior. Why? Study leader Arthur Brief thinks the topic of workplace sexuality is still considered taboo. "It's too lurid for some and too politically incorrect for others," he told USA Today. "Our story is really a feminist story, because we argue that there are negative consequences for women who use sexuality in the workplace." The research findings were presented at the Academy of Management annual meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.
When I was 7, my aunt and my mom were talking about business and life in general and my aunt said, "Good girls finish last..." My mother hushed her and pointed at me, whispering, "I don't want her to know that!" I guess they were wrong, score 1 for "good girls."
ReplyDeleteI just read an article in Glamour magazine about the negative effect that "Porn Chic" or something like that is having on women, leading us to think that our worth is in how sexy we are, or actually how sexy our image is, and I'm glad to know that some people recognize that women have more to offer than eye candy.
Your mom was right.
ReplyDeleteI've noticed the "porn chic" trend myself, though I never heard the term before you mentioned it. It seemed like when I was growing up, the majority of women did not to be objectified.
Fast forward a decade or so and it seems like younger women, through fashion and actions, are almost reversing the trend.
Nothing says "objectify me" to a man better than a bunch of strategically placed exposed skin. Women shouldn't hav to resort to that.
Peronally I prefer unwrapping a gift to having it handed to me exposed :-)
I think the study may be a little shallow (statistically, not philosophically speaking). I'd be interested in seeing the demographic breakdown of the responses.
ReplyDeleteLogically, (at least by my warped mind) the sluttiest MBAs would be comprised of the younger women; not that whorish behavior is the sole realm of the young. Also logically, the older MBAs would have a higher salary and have had more opportunities for promotions. It seems like there would be a natural skew to the data.
Are the sluts earning less money and have had less promotions because their blowing their way around the office or because they have a shorter tenure? Is the study flawed because it's focused on MBA level jobs?
Using your sexuality at work doesn't necessarily mean dressing like Britney or XTina. There's nothing sexier than a women in white blouse, well tailored slacks (or skirt), and black f-me pumps, which was the outfit of choice for the young(er) women at pretty much every Telecom firm I ever worked at/visited.
Does it bother anyone else that Blogger totally ignores the rules surrounding capitalizing proper nouns? I keep thinking that I'm forgetting to type a capital "C" when posting here.
ReplyDeleteNext thing you know, they'll be running with scissors...
That outfit does sound sexy...
ReplyDeleteYou could be right, Chris. The survey could be skewed as most older women that make more are dressing and acting more modestly due to age. Without seeing the whole survey, we can't be sure about the demographics.
I do think it is a wake up call to the women (and to some extent, men) of corporate America. I'm all for sexy women any way that I can get them, bearing in mind my comment above about unwrapping a package as what gets me going.
But work is work, and it will always be work. People get hang-ups if you tell them how to approriately dress these days for the job. They want work to somehow be like a fancy club you get paid to go to or like their family room at home, and they want to dress like they're at a nightclub or just rolled out of bed.
Neither of those styles work at most offices. Nobody feels inspired to hire the girl in the bikini top rubbing your shoulders for the appropriate reason. They think about how nice it would be to fuck her, but they don't auntomatically connect that she'd be a good investment banker or neurosurgeon.
In the same regard, is the guy who meets you in shorts and flip flops on a weekeday morning at the office the guy you want in charge of your money, security or medical supplies?
I just don't think it makes sense.
Also, I hadn't thought about the noun capitalization...