The role of dress style for senior women in a corporate consulting firm

M.Phil. (Leadership in Performance and Change)Studies by numerous authors such as Damhorst, Jondle, and Youngberg (2005), Damhorst (2005), Hymowitz (2005), Miller-Spillman (2005), Peluchette, Karl, and Rust (2006), Rafaeli, Dutton, Harquail, and Mackie-Lewis (1997), Rafaeli and Pratt (1993), and Schmalz (2000a) have corroborated the belief that appearance and dress style are important and significant factors in a person’s career progression. This is because people are often judged on their outward appearance in the first four to 10 seconds of the first interaction. Additionally, the way women dress is scrutinised more than men because of pre-existing notions about what constitutes masculinity and femininity (Kalkowski & Fritz, 2004; Omair, 2009). Rarely are these first impressions changed, and often the decision for future interactions are made based on these first impressions. There may also be an impact on women’s career progression due to the opinions of their co-workers, partly based on the women’s dress style