Tone It Down

by Liz O’Donnell (Boston)

It has been ten years since Fortune Magazine ran its harsh feature story on Silicon Valley CEO Kim Polese. The article, titled “The Beauty of Hype: A Cautionary Tale of Silicon Valley,” criticized Polese for creating and capitalizing on a “glamour queen” image. When the story came out, women in Silicon Valley cried double standard. After all, nobody was scrutinizing Larry Ellison or Steve Jobs’ looks. Fast forward to 2009. A lot can happen in ten years. But has anything changed?

Just last month the Wall Street Journal ran a story titled “Cracking the Hedge-Fund Dress Code for Women.” In the article Wall Street women discuss how tricky it can be to dress for work. Try too hard and you’re inappropriately sexy; not hard enough and you’ll never get ahead. It should come as no surprise that women are judged not only by what they do but also by how they look. After all our female leaders in Washington are examined as much, if not more, for how they look than how they lead. We’ve all heard about Condi’s boots, Hillary’s cleavage and Michelle’s arms.

Boots can be swapped for Naturalizer pumps, cleavage can be covered and arms need not be bared -if a woman wants to “tone it down” something they often feel compelled to do in the workplace. But what if you just happen to be a natural beauty blessed with a perfectly proportioned body and striking face? Can you tone it down – and should you?

Amy Marquis is the Branch Operations Manager for Fi-Plan Partners, a financial planning and brokerage firm in Alabama. She is also young (31) and beautiful. Marquis learned early on in her career to tone down her appearance by dressing conservatively and professionally even in business casual settings. Marquis was aware her looks came into play when she first went to work.

“I started noticing the brokers treated me differently,” she said. “They treated me in a playful spirit and almost a flirty manner. At first I didn’t know how to react.”

Marquis says as she got to know her coworkers she developed a sense of who was harmless and who needed to be told, “Cut the crap.”

“I started dressing conservatively just for that fact,” she says. One weekend Marquis went shopping and bought a new dress. “I thought it looked gorgeous and wore it to work with high heels.” She says she got so many comments from both the men, and the women, in the office, that she never wore it to work again.

Marquis says the women in the office asked her why she was dressing up and what she was trying to get. Today she sticks to standard black and gray suits.

“For women, it’s a delicate balance,” says Susan Solovic. “People can’t connect the dots between beauty queen and being smart.” Solovic knows something about that. Solovic was third-runner up to Miss America before she started her career. She is also quite smart. Solovic is the CEO of SBTV.com, and the author of “The Girls’ Guide to Building a Million Dollar Business” and “The Girls’ Guide to Power and Success.” Prior to founding SBTV she worked as a vice president, director of corporate marketing, for a Fortune 100 company’s international asset-based lending division and practiced law.

“I passed the bar on the first try and went to a small law firm,” she says. “People automatically assumed I was the receptionist or a paralegal.”

For Solovic, “toning it down” isn’t easy. She reluctantly describes herself as “overall an attractive package” and says friends have told her she turns heads. So Solovic works harder to prove herself on the job. “Absolutely it’s a balance,” she says, “be attractive but not provocative. A lot of women will use that sex appeal to their advantage. But I always bring it back to business.”

Beauty, says Solovic, is a double edged sword. “It can be an advantage and open doors.” Even so, when it comes to her work wardrobe, Solovic strives for “understated elegance.”