Women's self‐presentation and the transition from classroom to workplace

Abstract

Organizations place context‐specific appearance demands on women — demands that often echo wider inequalities, require adaptation of self‐presentation and impact on women's careers. Despite this, the effect of life and career stage transition on women's self‐presentation and embodied identities remains largely unexplored. Drawing on a qualitative study of young British women's body modification, this article examines what impact transitioning from education into the world of work has on women's self‐presentation and body modification regimes and their embodied identities. Body modification here refers to all methods women use to alter their physical body and appearance (e.g., invasive or non‐invasive; self‐administered or other‐administered; permanent or temporary), provided the intention of their use is primarily to alter the user's physical appearance. Expectations of transition, the impact of entering the workplace and of career establishment are considered as well as the significance of career stage and vulnerability for resistance and negotiation of organizational expectations. Transition of life stage is found to be a catalyst for self‐presentation change. The transition from education to work is identified as having a significant impact on body modification practices across workplaces.

The dynamics of employability capitals for the transition to work: career identity, cultural capital, job interview self-efficacy and self-perceived employability

“…cultural capital). This cultural awareness, in turn, may inform culturally suitable modes of presentation, scaffolding the confidence to manage the encounter with prospective employers and signal fit (Tazzyman, 2020), that is, ISE. From a CSM perspective, cultural capital signifies the sociocultural influence theorised to increase self-efficacy beliefs, as it represents the learning experience that instructs new entrants' performance during job interviews by indirectly modelling their actions (Lent and Brown, 2013;Molinsky, 2007).…”

Manager-Level Businesswomen’s Personal Experiences of Appearance Management and Body Image

“…다양한 선행연구들 이 매력적 외모를 소유하는 것의 사회적 중요성을 논하였는데, 특 히 1990년대 이후 외모를 '자본'으로서 보는 시각이 강조되어 왔 다. 외모와 관련하여 자본의 은유를 사용한 예시로는 physical capital (Shilling, 1991), bodily capital (Connell & Mears, 2018;Haynes, 2012;Wacquant, 1995), girl capital (Mears, 2015), aesthetic capital (Anderson et al, 2010;Holla & Kuipers, 2015), erotic capital (Hakim, 2010(Hakim, , 2011 (Quach et al, 2017;Shin et al, 2015;Tazzyman, 2020;Warhurst et al, 2000). 이 경우 여성의 외모 2).…”

Cis women's bodies at work: co‐modification and (in)visibility in organization and management studies and menopause at work scholarship

“…They focus on corporeal accommodation strategies deployed by self‐identified fat female employees, like walking quickly to disavow any notion that they were unfit. Equally, these women dressed smartly and ensured their clothing, make‐up, hair and cleanliness were immaculate to ‘compensate’ for being overweight and counter associations with lack of discipline (also see Glass & Cook, 2020; Tazzyman, 2020). Relatedly, Driver (2008, p. 922) comments on how women accommodate workplace bodily norms around size by dieting.…”

“…Staying with the intersection of gender and age, the young women interviewed by Tazzyman (2020) narrated how their clothing had changed since graduating from university. They now tried to embody a middle‐class body that looked ‘modest, not overtly sexual, hidden and discreet …, feminine and “classy”’ (p. 336), compromising by dressing for work in ways they personally disliked.…”

“…In contrast, men's bodies – and therefore men – are defined as rational, intellectual, self‐contained, strong, aggressive when necessary and without external ‘encumbrances’ like children (Atkinson et al., 2021a; Gatrell, 2013; Gatrell et al., 2017). Male bodies are ‘the norm against which women's performance is measured’, with organizational discourses othering women's bodies as needing to be managed, made compliant and/ or hidden (van den Brink & Stobbe, 2009, 454–455; also see Mavin & Grandy, 2016a, 2016b, 2020; Tazzyman, 2020; Turner & Norwood, 2014). Discursive comparisons to the normative male body create additional challenges for more marginalized women like those with disabilities, women of colour and older women (Jammaers & Williams, 2021; Rabelo et al., 2021; Steffan, 2021).…”