When Dereck Hench, my main Construction Supervisor, prevents a problem by looking ahead or does something extraordinary, I often say to him, “You’re not just another pretty face.” Of course he blushes and stammers. Well not really, but the thought of him blushing and stammering makes me laugh.
Turns out, his not so pretty face, and those of the rest of the guys I work with, may actually be an attribute. The Journal of Social Science just published a study that clearly showed discrimination against beautiful women who were applying for jobs in traditionally male dominated positions like Construction Supervisor, Mechanical Engineer, Manager of R&D, etc.
As we all know, beautiful men and women generally get hiring preference compared to the rest of us sorrowful specimens. In fact the beautiful people get all sorts of preferred treatments. Not so, it appears, in the field of Construction Supervision where we apparently prefer the women to be plain.
I certainly can support one of the conclusions of the study:
“The study chided those who let stereotypes influence hiring decisions. Given the importance of hiring and the consequences of making a wrong choice, the authors said, managers need to rely more on information from the individual rather than on stereotypes about physical appearance.”
Perhaps to right this historic wrong, we need to swing the pendulum a bit the other way. Beauty contests on the jobsite would certainly be motivational and would reward the beauty that has been previously discriminated against. Just a thought…though I really don’t want to see Dereck in a Speedo.
