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Take a moment to look through your company’s website. Scroll through the bios of the executive team. If you have a female CEO, there’s a strange phenomenon you might notice: there’s a good chance she’s blond.
Now that might not seem so unusual – after all, it’s just a hair color. However, when you take into account that 48 percent of female S&P 500 CEOs are blond, while only 5 percent of white American adults have golden locks, something starts to seem odd. And it’s not just CEOs that are affected – 35 percent of female United States Senators are also blond, as well as the majority of university presidents.
So what’s the deal? Do blonds have more fun and enjoy better career success, or is there something other than genetics at play? Apparently, being blond is actually the key to being viewed as a successful female leader. Sorry, fellow brunettes, but we’re all screwed. Even though we’re in 2016, there can still be some resistance to female leadership – if you don’t believe me, just look at the political Facebook posts from everyone you went to high school with. Jennifer Berdahl, who conducted the study, found that women who chose to dye their hair blond were actually respected more in the workplace. Berdahl says, “If women are choosing to dye their hair blonde, there’s something strategic about the choice. If the package is feminine, disarming and childlike, you can get away with more assertive, independent and [stereotypically] masculine behavior.” Additionally, in surveying a male study group, Berdahl and her colleagues found that blond female leaders were perceived as being “warmer” than female brunette leaders, which may garner more workplace respect and improve office relationships.
Will I dye my hair in order to get ahead? Probably not, but then again, I couldn’t give two shits whether anyone I work with thinks I’m friendly or not. However, if you actually care about getting along with your employees and being viewed as a kind, caring leader, you may want to book an appointment with your hair stylist – a promotion may be in order..
[via Slate]
Image via YouTube
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Steph W.
Steph W. is a new Master's degree graduate with an intern's salary and six-figure taste. She realizes her expectations far exceed reality, so she spends her days pinning away Loubs she pretends are in her physical closet instead of her virtual one. Her hobbies include attempting to trapping her boyfriend into marriage before he finds out how insane she is and pretending that Black Box wine tastes as good as the kind she could afford when she was gainfully employed. Send her tips for getting out of student debt at recruitchairtsm@gmail.com
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Didn’t read the article yet. Just came here to say Ms. Vaughn still does it for me.
So hot, want to touch the hiney, aaawoooooooo
That Veronica Vaughn is one fine piece of Ace, I know from experience
No you don’t.
Me and her got it on! WooooWeee
I want to touch the hineyyy
Good try, man. This actually is kind of funny if you imagine Michael Scott screwing up one of the easiest and most often repeated movie quotes of our generation.
“Even though we’re in 2016, there can still be some resistance to female leadership – if you don’t believe me, just look at the political Facebook posts from everyone you went to high school with.” I see your I’m With Her sticker came in the mail
Remember, voting for Hillary just because she’s a woman isn’t sexist.
Yeah it must be pretty easy being a low information, single issue voter
“Yeah it must be pretty easy being a progressive voter”
Fixed it for you.
Appreciate it, this damn autocorrect is always messing me up
Ahh I see you’re blaming someone else for your problems, that’s the progressive way.
Ok I’ll get back to work now.
Aren’t you the one who just this week lamented that everything gets turned into a political message in 2016 America?
Yep and this column was clearly political given its content and the fact that it was sourced from Slate.
You went from female CEOs happen to be majority blond to all progressives are low info. Stretching.
So rather than just ignoring it, we perpetuate a political argument?
“Make. America. Great. Again.”
Causation vs. correlation. Somehow I doubt that “being blonde” will rank anywhere near the top of the list of things that’ll make someone a great C-suite exec or senator. Also given that this came from Slate, not exactly a bastion of logical and level headed thinking, I would take it with a grain of salt.
Exactly my thoughts. People use these washed-up studies of questionable sample sizes and make conclusions to fit their views.
The standards for reportable studies and surveys are lower than mine after a bottle of Rioja
are you blond by chance?
My CEO is an attractive blonde woman. Checks out. No complaints from me.
I’m excited to hear all the money I spend to maintain my platinum blonde locks might eventually pay off.
Do it.
“Blonde” is for women, “blond” is for men. You’re welcome.
I bet you’d find more of a separation between tall and short women. Same bias applies to men. I read a study that the average executive is 6′ or even taller. Yeah, this figure INCLUDES women.
Aphrodite was blonde. Haters gonna hate
Another reason to go blonder as you get older is because it would be easier to hide gray hair as opposed to dark colors.