Loss of femininity

[Moodyman]

In the last 20 years, I've worked in various white collar jobs with blue chip companies.

In recent years I've noticed far more women at the middle-senior management level. That is great, but, more and more of them seem to be dressing like men.

When business dress is required, they wear trousers and jackets (shortened version of men's blazer) - as opposed to skirts.

When it's casual, they all wear jeans and fully buttoned shirts tucked into their jeans - just like men do. Very few wear blouses.

I know some of these women outside of work and they dress very feminine (long dresses and skirts) when not working.

You could argue that clothing fashion is ever-changing, but me wonders....do they sub-consciously feel pressured to dress / act masculine to make progress?

 

[coffeejo]

It hard/impossible to speak for all women but it could be exactly what you say - a desire to be viewed as Just Another Colleague and not A Woman. Since we judge people by how they present themselves, their uniform of choice could be a mask, a conscious or subconscious way of levelling the playing field.

On a more uncomfortable note, it could also be a way of diverting the male attention away from what you term as their "femininity" to avoid unwanted sexual comments.

 

[GTTTM]

In the last 20 years, I've worked in various white collar jobs with blue chip companies.

In recent years I've noticed far more women at the middle-senior management level. That is great, but, more and more of them seem to be dressing like men.

When business dress is required, they wear trousers and jackets (shortened version of men's blazer) - as opposed to skirts.

When it's casual, they all wear jeans and fully buttoned shirts tucked into their jeans - just like men do. Very few wear blouses.

I know some of these women outside of work and they dress very feminine (long dresses and skirts) when not working.

You could argue that clothing fashion is ever-changing, but me wonders....do they sub-consciously feel pressured to dress / act masculine to make progress?

I was going to try and post a constructive reply - but all I could think on re-reading the post was

"you sound just like my dad" (who refused to let me wear jeans or trouser - apart from jogging bottoms when on hill/mountain walks) until I was into my teenage years...........

And - blouses??? - sorry to me they're , ahem, middle aged clothes

 

[Kirstie]

You could always ask 'them'

 

[keyser soze]

I don't tuck anything into my jeans

Have to agree a blouse is a bit middle aged

 

[GTTTM]

I don't tuck anything into my jeans

Have to agree a blouse is a bit middle aged

me neither - doing so only makes the muffins look bigger - I like to cover all the lumps and bumps up with a free-er flowing top LOL

 

[XmisterIS]

Perhaps us men could take inspiration from Les Dawson in order to balance things out a bit? God forbid if your boob fell out and bounced across the table in a meeting though ...

 

[Sara_H]

I'm a nurse with two seperate jobs.

One of my jobs is a uniform of tunic and trousers, I wear crocs which are the ugliest shoes in the world, but the comfiest for a twelve hour shift on your feet.

My other job is non uniform 9-5 and involves sitting down more (hurrah!). For that job I tend to wear knee length dresses, but I do have some wide leg trousers that I wear with a blouse. I wear flat ballet style shoes though - can't be doing with heels a t work, plus in my job ya never know if you're going to have to run away fast!

 

[XmisterIS]

One of my jobs is a uniform of tunic and trousers, I wear wellington-sandals which are the ugliest shoes in the world, but the comfiest for a twelve hour shift on your feet.

There we go, corrected that one for you!

 

[fossyant]

Tin hats at the ready. Which fella will win the 'shovel' award for digging a hole too deep ! Then get's a ban cos they won't stop digging naming no names of course

 

[gbb]

It hard/impossible to speak for all women but it could be exactly what you say - a desire to be viewed as Just Another Colleague and not A Woman. Since we judge people by how they present themselves, their uniform of choice could be a mask, a conscious or subconscious way of levelling the playing field.

On a more uncomfortable note, it could also be a way of diverting the male attention away from what you term as their "femininity" to avoid unwanted sexual comments.

This could well be true. I used to have a very very good female colleague friend (not that way ) who used to be very feminine in the way she dressed. The leering that used to go on from males in the factory was very overt.
I asked her once, don't you get fed up of it ?...no not really, she said, but you do get used to it. It is a bit much sometimes but you learn to fend it off.

Perhaps the dress code does allow a girl to blend in a bit more ?

 

[srw]

Perhaps the dress code does allow a girl to blend in a bit more ?

Ahem. I assume she was over 16?

Perhaps your male colleagues needed to grow up a bit?

 

[carolonabike]

It's probably just because trousers and a jacket look just as smart and are a lot more practial and confortable than skirts which in winter (or in some office environments) mean wearing the dreaded tights .

Unless you have good legs, skirt suits look better with heels which are in themselves literally, a pain. Also, as coffejo says, it may be a way of avoiding unwanted attention.

I wouldn't consider femininity to be dictated and decided by the clothes someone wears. Surely it's innate?

 

[ttcycle]

Nah femininity isn't innate - feminine/masculine are social constructs but I agree with the first part, it's not dictated by the clothes that a person wears.

I'm with Kirstie - your best answer is to ask your colleagues - it also depends on the company where you work as there are small rules about dress code etc as well as the type of work you do influencing the clothing.

It's interesting though that women can be thought of more in terms of appearance though- that's what I mean about social constructs.

 

[Fnaar]

I'll ask my boss what she thinks...