Money Musings 💭the gender grooming gap 🤬
Ever since I did this Fast Company interview, I’ve been thinking a lot about the cost of women’s personal care and grooming. The premise of the article is whether or not these expenses should be categorized as needs or wants (an exercise we do in The 30-Day Money Cleanse).
Society tells us that our beauty expenses are frivolous (and many personal finance experts concur). We end up feeling shameful about them, but in reality (unfortunately) our appearance is tied to our career success.
What?! 🤦♀️
Studies show that attractive individuals outearn their peers by 20%. The same study showed that for women, attractiveness is completely accounted for by “grooming.” 🤯 And of course, society’s standards of a well-groomed woman cost a bajillion times more than they do for a man (and take way more time). I spend over 5x what Justin spends on grooming each year and he’s a very well-groomed man (and I get a decent number of free products!).
In another study, employers admitted that they were 2x more likely to offer a job to a woman who was wearing makeup. 🙄
But wait… being too attractive actually hurts women in their careers. Another double bind.
I’d love to hear from you. What personal care and beauty expenses do you consider a necessity for work? Have you experienced a time in your career or life where you felt you were at a disadvantage because your “grooming” wasn’t up to snuff. Here’s what our instagram community had to say.
Money Move of the Week
Start saving for the holidays (or summer travel). The further in advance we start setting aside money for something, the easier it is on us (yes, please! ). Think ahead to your spendy-ist times of year. How much do you want to spend? Let’s say you plan to spend $1,000 during the holidays on gifts, a festive outfit and extra Ubers home after holiday parties. You count and have four paychecks until you need the cash. You’d want to set aside $250 per paycheck.
You Gotta See This
Forbes came out with their list of 100 of America’s Most Innovative Leaders and it only included one woman. ONE. Huh? 57 women CEOs, including Stella McCartney, Anne Wojcicki (CEO of 23andMe), and Marium Naficy (founder and CEO of Minted) responded saying. “If America’s Most Innovative Leaders list as Forbes published Friday elevates 99 men and one woman, it’s time we rethink how we define “innovative” and “leaders.” It’s time to overhaul the criteria of who makes the cut.” Forbes offered a non-apology.