Want to be a female leader? Turns out hair color is one more thing to worry about
“Hear the one about the blonde who was so dumb she …. ” The stereotype of the dumb blonde has been around for a while, and like many stereotypes it can be harmful to the aspirations and reputations of women with light-colored hair. But new research suggests there’s an upside to being towheaded. My brilliant blonde daughter-in-law sent me an article showing that blondes are over-represented at the top of large corporations. Blondes constitute about 2 percent of the world’s female population and 5 percent of white women, but they make up almost half of the female S&P 500 CEOs.
As an ambitious, high-achieving blonde myself, I’d like to think that’s because we’re just natural-born leaders. But unfortunately, like many things still bedeviling businesses, the truth is based more on prejudice than logic. Certainly some of the discrepancy comes from the fact that white women are more likely to make the C-suite — and more likely to be blonde. But it also turns out the blonde stereotype can be turned on its head (pun intended). Women in leadership roles always have to navigate how to be a forceful, authoritative figure without being seen as a you-know-what. When a blonde issues a command, she is likely to be seen as warmer and judged less harshly than a brunette who issues the same command. Being a blonde enables women to exercise their power without risk of arousing the same level of fear and hostility.
It’s hard to see quite which outdated trope is causing this side effect. Is it that blonde women are seen as less competent — back to those “dumb blonde jokes — and therefore less of a threat? Or is it that blonde women conform with the notions of beauty likely to be held by the rest of the (largely white) members of the C-suite? After all, we all take bad news better when it comes from a pretty face.
As a blonde, I sometimes have to put up with silly blonde jokes and stereotypes. But I also need to recognize the little bit of privilege my hair color conveys and try to pass it on to women who don’t benefit from being blonde. As someone who wants what’s best for people and business, I will continue to challenge business leaders to recognize our prejudices and work toward a workplace where people are judged by their output, not superficial characteristics like hair color.
