How often do women bosses turn down qualified attractive female appplicants?

Question

I was just wondering for research purposes.

For example, would you hire an unattractive, less qualified applicant as opposed to the more qualified pretty applicant?

No beating around the bush! I want honest serious answers!

Women only please.

sorry about the spelling..

I personally don't have this problem..

I 'm simply writing an article about it... Just wanted the opinion of the general public..

Thanks

Answer 1

Looking at an office that I visit frequently that used to have a woman boss who was often threatened by attractive women, probably more often than you'd like to hear. I've never seen such a collection of poorly qualified warthogs in my life. (At least one doesn't seem to bathe very often -- Yuck!) The new boss, also a woman but not the type to be threatened by appearances, seems to be making some changes both in worker quality and general appearance of the crew.

I know that you asked for answers from women only, but a woman who does that would not likely EVER admit to it. The one who used to run the aforementioned office swears that she'd never do something like that, but I've seen the rejects and their resumes and know several of them to be well-qualified for the positions there AND they are more pleasant to the eye -- and I'm not talking beautiful, just not butt-ugly. It's entirely possible that that's at least part of the reason that she was moved to a one-deep position in another functional area...

Answer 2

Very often. Not that I'm extremely attractive, but I have been discriminated against for being skinny and having long blonde hair all my working life, hence I now work from home. You are either perceived a threat becuase of your looks or perceived not smart enough. Not worth the hassles. Also I did hire an extremely attractive receptionist once, although her skills were not up to scratch, but I was after her presense. That particular case was a big mistake, she was nothing but trouble. Should have gone with the less attractive applicant instead with the better skills.

Answer 3

I've seen this happen, but I'm very careful to not do it. I want the most qualified person for the job- I don't care if the person is a he/she/it, beautiful, ugly, or covered in polk-a-dots. If they are qualified and have a great personality, I want them on my team.

I think, though, I am an exception to the rule. The business I work in is male dominated and I am one of 3 females in a store of 40 employees. I am the only one in a position of authority. I've watched the men I work with hire unqualified females who are beautiful only to watch them get fired a few weeks later because they can't do the job.

Most of the females in the company I work for have to know their jobs extremely well to be successful. Looks really don't matter in this regard for my company. Again, I think we are an exception.

Answer 4

When I was young and beautiful it was allot easier obtaining a job if I was interviewed by a man as opposed to a woman.
Women can be very Petty and aggressive towards one another in the work place and in my experience they can even be downright cruel if they think you look better than they do.
I remember I would sometimes even attempt to down play my looks by wearing very light makeup and loose fitting clothes but it didn't help.
All it takes is for them to see a man looking at you and they will hate you for it forever.
I have found that men are allot easier to work for and with them they are usually out in the open about what's on their minds where with women they will talk about you behind your back then smile in your face.
You can usually be yourself if your being interviewed by a man but if your being interviewed by a woman it's best you try and look professional and not pretty.
It wouldn't matter to me how another woman looks whether she's pretty or not but what would matter is if she can do the job and I can tolerate being around her for 8 hours every day.

Answer 5

At an old job our HR Manager always said she would never hire any female she thought was more attractive than her.

Yeah. She had some serious self conscious issues going on.

Answer 6

I would never discriminate based on looks! I've hired younger, more attractive women to work for me. I always look at their qualifications and go from there. Are you having problems finding a position? Maybe it's your interviewing skills?

Answer 7

My experience is limited but I never took looks into consideration when hiring because I just wanted someone to get the job done.

Answer 8

I looked for qualifications first then personality and then looks. I looked for cleanliness & self confident people. That usually made them "look" good.