The concerning reason this CEO said she had to dye her hair brown
From sexism to the gender pay gap, women in 2017 still seem to fighting an uphill battle in some workplaces.
One Silicon Valley CEO discovered yet another quiet form of discrimination that women have to endure — hair colour.
A natural blonde, Eileen Carey was advised by another woman in the industry to dye her hair in order to get ahead in their industry.
Oddly enough, she claims it worked.
"The first time I dyed my hair was actually due to advice I was given by a woman in venture capital," she told the BBC.
“Being a brunette helps me to look a bit older, and I needed that, I felt, in order to be taken seriously.”
The software professional isn’t the first woman to change her appearance to try to get ahead in a male-dominated industry.
While interviewing other blondes for her startup company, Carey discovered that a considerable number of other women had done the same thing.
“There’s the fetishisation of blondes,” Carey explains, which means that men are more likely to objectify blonde women than brunettes.
Carey’s makeover did not stop there: She went as far as wearing glasses and "androgynous" baggy clothes “to be seen as a business leader and not as a sexual object.”
"I was told for this raise [of funds], that it would be to my benefit to dye my hair brown because there was a stronger pattern recognition of brunette women CEOs," she told the BBC.
Carey attributes her approach to gender inequalities to her mother, according to The Sun.
"My mom has short hair, never wears makeup, does not wear high heels, never wears dresses," she told the newspaper.
"That's who she has always been."
