But On The Other They Are Used To Highlight A Woman’s Sexuality And Emphasise Her Femininity: Why Workplace Dress Codes Have Troubled Women For Decades
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She pointed out that her male colleagues were not required to do so, when receptionist Nicola Thorp was told by her employer that she had to wear high heels to work. She was sent home from her job without pay, when she refused to conform to the company’s dress code policy. Mostly there’s more at play here than an absurd dress code policy. Besides, look, there’s a long and complicated history of women’s dress codes in the workplace especially in the corporate world. I’m sure you heard about this. As Thorp found out, the power of high heels at work ain’t confined to media celebrities and politicians. It has always pervaded the workplace. Now let me tell you something. Actually the power dressing trend in the 1980s involved business women wearing an exaggerated masculine style of dress, pinstripe suits with shoulder pads -but still paired with killer heels -as a way of signalling that their career ambition was equal to that of men.
News reports focused on her choice of clothes; and a situation when she tripped over in India was reported frame by frame in a front page spread of a leading Australian newspaper, Cameras were trained on her bottom.
Early on, she meets with an image consultant to improve her chances of getting a white collar job.
The consultant tells her that her appearance is most of us are aware that there is a history behind high heels that has a sexualised element to it. Now pay attention please. Over a couple of decades, researchers have shown that workplace norms surrounding the body are implicitly masculine. Now please pay attention. Women learn from an early age to discipline their bodies through diet, exercise, clothes, make up and shoes. Basically, the result is that women’s bodies at work are implicitly seen as different and abnormal, inherently sexual, suspicious and disruptive. Known the treatment of former Australian prime minister, Julia Gillard, is another example of how damaging the scrutiny of women’s dress can be to their professional image.
Women in public lifetime also continue to be endlessly scrutinized for the way they dress.
Stilettos are seen as an important symbol of power for women, a marker of high status, despite their impracticality and physical strain that they put on a woman’s body.
More column inches are devoted to discussing the dress codes of women political leaders than to scrutinizing the sartorial choices of men in equivalent positions of power and authority. Finding a balance between these competing expectations is impossible, not to mention the costs they have on women’s bodies. Notice, on the one hand, high heels are suggested as a way for a woman to gain height and look more like a man. Nevertheless, on the other, they are used to highlight a woman’s sexuality and emphasise her femininity.
