Anonymous wrote:
Anonymous wrote:Federal agency. Slightly attractive women get special treatment.
This is something I've heard about. I would go even further, though, and say that slightly attractive women who indulge flirting get special treatment. I know someone who was in a situation where she could've gotten special treatment. She was attractive, but she shut down the flirting, and it impacted her in a negative way. Another person didn't shut it down, and that person definitely got special treatment (as in certain male managers fell all over themselves to help her career).
This is one area that I think is tricky for women. And you would think it's just an issue for women who aren't conventionally attractive (as in they get slighted), but it's also an issue for women who are average or above average attractive but don't like a certain kind of attention from male superiors and send a clear message that it is unwelcome.
I don't really see how to change it. It's a difficult thing to prove. And most often, the attention skirts the edge of harassment. So it doesn't rise to the level of making any kind of official complaint. It's more subtle than that. At least that's the situation the person I know confronted.
I think that the sad reality is that managers -- of both sexes -- tend to treat more favorably the people who make them feel good. So even some female managers will advance and promote the people who tend to flatter them the most or make them feel liked.
I'd love to hear some positive stories about how someone effectively dealt with this sort of thing and was able to strike a balance.