The dress code of the Coca-Cola Director: Clothes as career boosters for women?

Dress code, the right clothing for the best effect and appearance, is a topic that was recently featured on Best of HR - Berufebilder.de® not only reached 18.000 readers in a few days, but also sparked heated discussions. But why are there any role stereotypes in clothing and how do we deal with them?

Dresscode as a career booster?

Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®-author Maria-Theresa Radinger, which has its own TV show in Austria Style– and manners-Ask Has, gave 17 tips in her post - each for men and Women. That's probably the big one Success of the contribution justified.

Because all too often the topic of style, fashion and clothing is associated with purely female associations. Just recently, for example, the Labor Director of Coca Cola, Brigitte Faust, caused violent opposition in social media. The reason: In an interview, she mentioned clothing among women as the first and therefore most important career tip, especially for women. Many social media users found this extremely inappropriate and no longer up-to-date. For this statement was about Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®-Author Monika Paitl on Facebook:

“With the scarf for a top career… Well, servus. Outfit as number one career booster? What year are we again? ”

The right clothes are used to separate the spirits

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This shows that dress code is a topic that has divided opinions. Some Industries insist strictly on its observance, others are deliberately relaxed or even completely negate its existence. What many don't think of: There is also an implicit dress code that is there, but not at first glance clear is recognizable.

And: Men are also subject to certain dress code regulations at work and are accordingly unsure which ones Regulate because now apply to them.

Familiar conventions break

One thing is very clear: especially in public Appear, to which every professional context usually belongs, certain rules apply. Some, like the tie requirement for men on some occasions, are very present in our minds.

Other conventions, on the other hand, are so familiar to us that we only think about them when they are broken. This is especially true for gender-specific clothing.

Dresscode - a constant tightrope walk?

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For style consultant and Best of HR – Berufebilder.de®-Author Susanne Beckmann is a constant tightrope walk, determined by the question of how one wants to be perceived in everyday working life. So she puts in her contribution to the topic Dress code and gender clichés firmly:

“For example, if women dress too feminine and erotic, they are considered less competently perceived”

Of course, as a modern woman, I wonder if this really should be the case if Beckmann recommends leaving the high heels in the closet and preferring instead to take on shoes of a maximum 6 cm height, which are also closed in the summer. Because such tips always look a bit excessive for me.

Strongly arrested in gender stereotypes

However, how strongly each one of us is caught up in gender clichés becomes evident when we read Beckmann's text. Because there are also garments for the industry or the Companys are atypical – and that they are for Employees Should be taboo, so it makes sense. Style Advisor continues:

“We have clear ideas about the dress code of many professions and of men and women and react irritated to negative if this picture is not met. For example, a bank employee with fashionably tattered jeans and a casual sweat shirt is perceived differently than in a classic suit. ”

Skirts and tights for men?

And, no wonder, not only for women, also for men there are taboos: Birgit Vey described in the Stuttgarter Nachrichten the skirt as a taboo of male clothing - and quite wrongly so. The example becomes a little less absurd when one realizes that skirts were male garments for most of human history - only since about the French one Revolution they're taboo for men, but that convention is already ingrained in our minds.

And it shows that sometimes we do well to question the general consensus of typical ideas, because they can be right fast change. For example, the RomanceProfessorand fashion sociologist Barbara Vinken regularly draw attention to the changes in meaning that garment gaps have undergone throughout history - or are you aware that even tights were originally worn by men?

Attract attention by breaking clichés

All the more you can, however, with changing the atypical clothes of the opposite sex greatest awareness produce - if you want it! Just think of celebrities like Jorge Gonzales, who consciously break with the clichéd ideas of male and female clothing, thereby deliberately provoking them, but who have also declared this to be their trademark.

Conversely, women also wear uniforms with consciously male clothing, such as blazers and trousers - just think of Chancellor Angela Merkel. This looks very masculine and can be used consciously as a control instrument and to underline authority. And it also serves as a protective function, like the previous dayspiegel-Editor Tissy Bruns once admitted.

Conclusion

All this shows that dress codes and fashionable conventions are in flux, are changing, new habits are emerging, old ones are disappearing. It is therefore quite stupid to stick to them - even in the job.

And: You can of course ignore the fashion, style and dress code and possibly take a few disadvantages in purchasing - you will escape the topic but never.

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