Women in business- possible to seem to girly? (collection, attorney, finance)

[Pear Martini]

Do women who dress feminine in business and in the corporate world get taken less seriously (less promotions, partnerships, has to prover herself more) if she has feminine style?

I consider myself to be a fashionista and I'm also a budding Auditor and Tax Accountant. I'm looking forward to my first internship at one of The Big 4 Accounting firms this summer.

Are women who wear light pink, light colors, skirts, and long hair taken seriously?

I'm not talking "sexy", I can stay away from that.

I'm very serious about my career and will modify my style if need be, yes its silly, but I'm a fashion bug at heart.

Thanks for the input.

[Currency Pair Crocodile]

No cleavages.

Colours are good and even better, but wear a blazer on top to make it official, like a lady's suit.

Nobody is sexist unless you work in a hillbilly shack and in the deep South where other women get catty.

Your worst enemies are other women.

[user_id]

Originally Posted by Pear Martini

Do women who dress feminine in business and in the corporate world get taken less seriously (less promotions, partnerships, has to prover herself more) if she has feminine style?

In general yes...they are taken less seriously. There is some research (don't have a citation off hand) that demonstrates this pretty clearly, namely that women do better in power positions when they have more masculine traits (in dress, in behavior, etc). Note, this doesn't mean you have to dress in suits and act just like a man, but rather dressing, acting, etc "girlie" is likely to work against you.

If you are a "fashion bug" at heart....perhaps you're barking up the wrong tree?

[Wilson513]

Sadly, yes. There is no good reason for it, but the shorter the skirt the more likely she is to be a secretary and not an executive. Cleavage is the exclusive territory of the staffs' embarrassing family members or the oldest gal still employed by the company who slept with the boss three decades ago.

[mainebrokerman]

maybe 30 years ago, but not today,
what you are asking reflects more on the interpreter than yourself
Id much rather deal with woman on many areas than a guy- insecure and highly driven men are naturally competitive with other men-(AND ARE USUALLY VERY ARROGANT) I dont see this in woman
my tax accountant is a woman- she is very professional- I feel comfortable asking her anything
my previous accountant- a guy- was always on edge- put me on edge.

dress as you wish,,, Most secure men will respect you doing your own thing

[Currency Pair Crocodile]

Originally Posted by user_id

In general yes...they are taken less seriously. There is some research (don't have a citation off hand) that demonstrates this pretty clearly, namely that women do better in power positions when they have more masculine traits (in dress, in behavior, etc). Note, this doesn't mean you have to dress in suits and act just like a man, but rather dressing, acting, etc "girlie" is likely to work against you.

If you are a "fashion bug" at heart....perhaps you're barking up the wrong tree?

Absolute b0ll0cks. Where do you fellas get this from?

[chet everett]

Walk around any modern office in any field other than fashion merchandising and the guys are going to be wearing "business casual" (with a very strong tilt toward "casual") and virtually all the women will be in clothes that are very very very very low on the "fashion" meter. The vast majority of higher fashion clothes are being sold to women who do not wear them to an office or other workplace.

There are some exemptions, notably among "high status" physicians and attorneys in firms with a more flamboyant set of clients but even then the "style factor" is pretty subdued and really a case of more expensive materials / labels than really the "haute couture" look.

I know a fair number of women with MBAs from some of the top schools in the country / world and except for those who work for fashion oriented firms they have rather bland business clothes. A handful that work do have a sizable collection of "after work" clothes that are more cutting edge (which still mostly are not particularly skin bearing / overtly sexy) in terms of colors / materials.

I have to admit that I have not been in too many workplaces in Miami or Palm Springs but those might be the only places where the "Lilly Pulitizer / sorority color palette " is common for businesswomen ... Even among finance and high tech offices in LA other than the lack of winter outerwear and a preference for lighter weight fabrics the office worker's color palette is real close to what you find in Chicago or New York, where "girly colors" are uncommon.

I suspect this has something to do with some pretty basic traits of dressing. The DETAILS of your 10 foot look having a nicely made well fitting outfit tend to speak more of your attention to important matters than the BOLDNESS of your 100 foot flamboyance wheterh your are a male or female / gay or straight...

[sware2cod]

You will see that BLACK is the basic color of choice, even in summer. Black slacks and a blouse. Or a print skirt with mostly black. Before you buy your wardrobe, go to the work area at lunch time and watch what the women are wearing in that area. You will see that 80% of the working women will have at least some black in their outfit at any given time.

You really don't want to stand out with your wardrobe at work - no matter what you style might be. You want to fit in with the rest of the workers and let your work be the submit matter that is important.

***One thing that many office women tend to do (over men) is be the group party planners....set up the covered dish events and coordinate such events. Many years ago a woman friend that was in a male dominated field told me that she purposely avoided volunteering for the party/event planning because she didn't want to get pigeonholed as doing girl-tasks. After she told me that, I carefully watched the work events and also noticed that the men avoid these as much as possible.

[theoldnorthstate]

think like a professional, dress like a professional, behave as a professional. including make up, hair, shoes and accessories. Within that bound, be flexible to apply your individual look and i like the advice of observing the culture

save the fashion bug for personal time.

good luck

[user_id]

Originally Posted by Antlered Chamataka

Absolute b0ll0cks. Where do you fellas get this from?

You find it problematic to suggest that someone should work in an area that they are passionate about? Accounting is boring....life is too short to have a boring career.