This study focused on working women’s perceptions of social attractiveness and their appearance management behavior. Social attractiveness is defined as individuals’ achieved attractiveness which can be expressed through social expressive power or social skills rather than innate physical appearance. This study was empirically conducted through questionnaires distributed to 200 working women in South Korea. According to the results, the participants recognized four factors constituting social attractiveness: physical appearance management, business manners, social skills, and sexual attractiveness. When they were asked to assess themselves on the same measures, these characteristics were further classified into six factors: business manners, feminine attractiveness, fashion sense, sociability, communication skills, and active appearance management. Their self-perceived social attractiveness was found to be influenced by all these factors in the order of feminine attractiveness, business manners, sociability, communication skills. Based on the self-presentation tendencies, the participants were classified into various groups, including the passive management group, daily life-oriented management group, work-oriented management group, neutral group, and active management group. The relative importance of the social attractiveness components was found to differ by group, although working women in all groups rated weight management higher than appearance management behavior. This study has implications in that it facilitates an understanding of the concept of social attractiveness and also provides a foundation base in terms of beauty consulting and marketing for working women to improve their social attractiveness.

The purpose of this study was to explore the personal experiences of businesswomen regarding appearance management and their body image. To achieve this, diverse perspectives were employed, including critical, practical, and positive body image perspectives. Interviews were conducted with 17 Korean businesswomen with more than 10 years of work experience. The data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach to understand their lived experiences of appearance management and body image. The participants acknowledged that appearance is important in the workplace - more so for women than for men. They commented that appearance may play an important role in displyaing social attractiveness to strangers, but other elements of social attractiveness such as liveliness or social skills take prominence in established relationships. Businesswomen, particularly those whose professions involve the display of appearance, are more likely to engage in aesthetic labor or the unpaid labor of managing their physical appearance in order to meet expectations at work. In general, however, these women considered appearance management to be a practice of self-care which seems to demonstrate their positive body image. This study has significance in that it strived to understand the subjective, lived experiences of businesswomen, including their thoughts and emotions related to appearance management and body image.