Current and aspiring women leaders may be self-conscious about their appearance, but strategies for developing an authentic professional style can redirect attention to their achievements, as they dress for comfort and confidence.
When Indra Nooyi, former Chairman and CEO of PepsiCo, decided to upgrade her boardroom attire to tailored dresses with pearls and scarves, she received an unexpected note from a male director: he said her new look made her “more intimidating.” While the comment might have been meant as a compliment, it exemplifies the complex relationship between appearance and professional success that women leaders – and leaders-in-waiting – must navigate daily.
As part of the Strategies for Leadership program, aimed at senior women executives, which has been running at IMD for 20 years, we talk about self-defeating behaviors, and participants often bring up how self-conscious they feel about their appearance.
Recent research reveals an often-overlooked dimension: women face appearance-related expectations and constraints in the workplace that connect directly to inclusion issues. These appearance pressures can significantly impact women’s professional trajectories, creating what experts call the “beauty paradox.”
The relationship between appearance and career success isn’t straightforward.
The double-edged sword of attractiveness
The relationship between appearance and career success isn’t straightforward. A 2024 study by economist Daniel Hamermesh identified a ‘beauty premium’ that translates to additional annual earnings of about $2,300. However, other research by Sheppard and Johnson reveals a particular side to this premium: the ‘femme fatale effect’, where attractive businesswomen are perceived as less trustworthy than their less attractive counterparts, particularly when delivering negative news.
This mistrust of beautiful women appears deeply rooted in gender stereotypes and the effect persists even when attractive women operate in traditionally feminine roles or industries, suggesting that the bias transcends the professional context. Notably, the same prejudice doesn’t apply to attractive male executives, highlighting a gender-specific challenge that reinforces negative historical stereotypes of the ‘evil seductress’.
Weight, gender, and income
Perhaps nowhere is the gender disparity in appearance standards more evident than in the relationship between weight, gender, and income. Research by Timothy Judge and Daniel Cable reveals a stark double standard: while men are financially rewarded for weight gain until reaching obesity, women face penalties for any weight gain, with very thin women experiencing the harshest penalties for initial weight increases. This disparity reflects deeply ingrained societal biases about gender and body image that continue to impact professional advancement.
The results of a revealing 2024 study by Christopher Marquis and colleagues, examining both US and Chinese labor markets, shows that attractiveness alone isn’t sufficient to guarantee advancement. The research, analyzing over 4,000 resumes across both countries, found that the impact of appearance depends heavily on its consistency with other status markers, particularly educational credentials.
Specifically, the study used two different experimental approaches: in China, …
Professorin Dr. Ginka Toegel , Diplom Psychologin (Humboldt University, Berlin), Promotion in Psychologie (Universität Leipzig), PhD in Organizational Behavior (London Business School) ist Professorin für Organizational Behavior and Leadership am IMD in Lausanne.