Abigail L. Ureña                      

Prof. Sara Jacobson

ENGL 11000 R

19 November 2019 

Composition in Two Genres

Interview 

This interview was conducted by Michelle Obama. Michelle, interviewed Daphne G. Delany-Hobart. Daphne Delany Hobart is a woman from New York. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, and was the first woman in her family to attend college. Delany-Hobart, became the first female senior engineer at NYC’s top engineering firm in the early 70s. During this interview, Daphne talks about her experiences regarding clothing and fashion in the professional workplace. Daphne G. Delany, mentions the reactions and stigmas she faced in regard to her clothing choices, and how this affected her position as a woman in a male dominated field. 

Interviewer- Michelle Obama 

Interviewee- Daphne G. Delany-Hobart 

Interviewer (Michelle Obama):  Hello, how are you doing today? Welcome to today’s program!

Interviewee (Daphne G. Delany-Hobart): I am doing great, thank you so much for inviting me today. 

Michelle Obama: So today I want to talk about your college experience, and how you felt as a young woman entering the corporate workforce. 

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: Yes, that’s great, I have many memories and experiences I would like to share today!

Interviewer: First, how did your family react when you told them you were going to college?

Interviewee: I was the first woman in my family to go to college, so that was already difficult for my family to comprehend my choice. 

Michelle Obama: Yes, I can understand why your choice would have been met with those reactions. I was also the first woman in my family to attend college, so I can understand your point of view.

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: I stood by my choice that I wanted to attend college. I wanted to be different from all of the other women in my family. I wanted to have my own career, I wanted to tell a story that hadn’t been told before. 

Michelle Obama: That’s great! Would you like to tell us a little bit more about your experience at college, and what happened after graduation. 

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: Yes, since I was a little girl, I was very different from the other girls. I always wanted to do something, I could never sit still. Everytime I had an idea I would have to make it happen. I was very curious and a bit mischievous. Deep down my parents always knew that I wanted to do more. When I told them I wanted to be an engineer, they were surprised but not shocked. In college, I was the only female in all of my classes for all 4 years.  

Michelle Obama: Wow, I assume that many other women, including myself, share that same experience.  

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: I was already used to being the only female in a large group of men, but, I think I was still very naive, because when I entered the workplace, I experienced more prejudices than I thought I would have.    

Michelle Obama: How was your college experience different from your experience in the workplace?

Daphne Delany-Hobart: Joining the workforce was a drastic change from the college scene. At work there were many more unspoken rules and stigma regarding a woman’s place. 

Michelle Obama: How did this stigma impact your career, and affect your daily life? 

Daphne Delany-Hobart: At this time in many places, women were regarded as intellectually inferior to men. This mindset bled into the workplace as well, and defined the way I was treated by many of my co-workers and bosses. 

Michelle Obama: Besides being prejudiced for being a woman in this field, did you receive any sexist rules to follow regarding your clothing choices? 

Daphne Delany-Hobart: Absolutely, I was required to dress as a “woman should”, they asked me to dress “modestly” and look “feminine”. However, many of these unspoken fashion rules were the social norm for women at this time. 

Michelle Obama: What rules were subjected on you based on the clothing that was appropriate for you to wear?

Daphne Delany-Hobart: My job required me to be very hands on in some cases, and on others to be more professionally dressed. For the men, it was normal for them to dress more casually when visiting a work site; however, for me the case was a bit different. Since we were at a work site, I needed to dress more casually to be able to work. Because of the norms at the time, I chose clothing that was similar to what men wore at this time, but I tried my best to make it look more appropriate and feminine, to abide by the norms of the time. I wore similar clothes to what the men wore; at work this didn’t seem as odd, but as soon as I left work, I could feel all of the stares, and hear the murmurs of the strangers that passed me by. 

Michelle Obama: In what ways do you think you were required to conform to these norms, even though you worked in a male dominated field?

Daphne Delany-Hobart: I was expected to dress the part. I had to be “modest” and “ladylike”, while working a job, that had previously been populated by males. 

Michelle Obama:  In what ways did you try to change the stereotype of the working woman, and how were your efforts received?

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: I decided to defy the stereotype by wearing pants to work. I didn’t think the reactions I received would be so drastic. The reactions I received differed greatly compared to when I wore a skirt or a dress. My male co-workers were often confused and didn’t think that pants were appropriate attire for women. This prejudice transcended past the workplace, and my new clothing choice, was received by many objections and protests from many of the people around me. 

Michelle Obama: How do you think a young woman’s experiences today would differ from yours? How do you think fashion in the workplace has evolved?

Daphne Delany-Hobart: I think that today women have the ability to dress in ways that they enjoy. I believe fashion in the workplace has evolved tremendously, and this has benefitted women.  Women now have more choices on what is seen as “appropriate” dress for work, and this has led to women being more comfortable and perform better in the workplace. There are still so many barriers we have to cross to reach gender equality, but so many stigmas and norms regarding a woman’s place in the workplace have changed since I had first entered the workplace, and that can be seen as a testament to how far women have come in the past decades. 

Michelle Obama: Wonderful, I agree and relate with your messages so well. However this is all the time we have today. Thank you so much for talking with us today, your valor and courageousness can be an example for many young women that want to follow your footsteps.  

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: I am so honored for being here today, and being able to share a little bit of my story. Thank you so much Michelle for having me today!

Magazine Article 

This is an article from a magazine like The New Yorker, Vogue, or The New York Times that talks about the changes regarding clothing for women in a professional workplace. 

How Far Have We Come to Gender Equality? Just ask Women’s Fashion. 

A perspective on the changes women’s clothing has experienced since women started entering the workplace

Abigail L. Ureña 

The femenist movement of the 1960s made a huge impact on the way women dressed. The 60s were a decade of change for women; new fashion trends were popularized and the clothes that were advertised and marketed for women that worked outside of the home became more modern. The way in which work clothes have evolved, as well as the stereotypes of “the working woman” has changed throughout the decades. 

After World War 1 and World War 2, women’s roles in the workplace became more prominent. These new roles called for more modern ways of dressing; women’s clothing now had more relaxed lines and silhouettes, and did not restrict women in many ways clothes had done before. Women became liberated from corsets and full bustles that were custom previously. These women that were now emancipated from the constraints of their attire could be seen carrying out new roles as working members of society, this allowed women to further integrate into a professional workplace. Thus, society adopted the structured look as androgynous as women’s rights advanced. This was said to have sparked the second wave of feminism in the U.S.

During the 1960s, dressing became more casual than in the past decades. It became more appropriate for women to show more  of their legs. During this time women began sporting minidresses and miniskirts, which were becoming very fashionable. In the last decades, the casual trend became commonplace. Since then, there has been a more relaxed attitude when it pertains to clothes worn by female employees in a professional environment. There have been measures to move away from the traditional    suit in the workplace, and more women began swapping out their skirts and dresses for pants in the workplace. 

In the 60s, many women wore bright and pastel colors, compared to the muted and subtle hues worn by women decades before them. Despite the advances women were required to appear “ladylike”, and dress “respectable” by wearing dresses with high necklines. Due to the stigma still placed on women’s clothing at this time, Pussy-bow blouses became increasingly popular. This fashion trend was popularized by working women, in an attempt to feminize a very traditionally masculine look. Pussy-bow blouses were viewed as a fitting equivalent to the traditional masculine suit-and-tie look; for many women this was seen as an attempt to be feminine but fit into what was then a male world.

Women now have more options than ever on what is seen as acceptable clothing options to wear to work. As jeans became increasingly appropriate attire for the workplace, women no longer feel the need to impose their status of power through suits. The last decade has seen women explore more style choices than ever, pantsuits are almost obsolete, and women now dress more closely to what they would wear when not working; a vernacular style of dressing. Women are now reasserting their femininity by wearing dresses and skirts—a new type of power play. Now it can be interpreted that skinny suits and high heels, prove that being powerful and being feminine aren’t mutually exclusive. The option of having more clothing styles to wear for work, shows the strides women have made in the workplace since the 1960s. 

What women wear to work says a lot about how far we’ve come in gender equality. Formality in workplace dress codes, have decreased since women started entering the workplace. Currently many professional, workplaces have adopted a more casual style; women can now sport many different outfit choices, they also have the ability to wear many different hair styles and makeup choices. In regards to gender equality there’s still so much to be done, but just by looking at the evolution and modernization of workplace fashions, one can see how much progress women have made. 

Abigail L. Ureña                      

Prof. Sara Jacobson

ENGL 11000 R

19 November 2019 

Composition in Two Genres

Interview 

This interview was conducted by Michelle Obama. Michelle, interviewed Daphne G. Delany-Hobart. Daphne Delany Hobart is a woman from New York. She was born and raised in Brooklyn, and was the first woman in her family to attend college. Delany-Hobart, became the first female senior engineer at NYC’s top engineering firm in the early 70s. During this interview, Daphne talks about her experiences regarding clothing and fashion in the professional workplace. Daphne G. Delany, mentions the reactions and stigmas she faced in regard to her clothing choices, and how this affected her position as a woman in a male dominated field. 

Interviewer- Michelle Obama 

Interviewee- Daphne G. Delany-Hobart 

Interviewer (Michelle Obama):  Hello, how are you doing today? Welcome to today’s program!

Interviewee (Daphne G. Delany-Hobart): I am doing great, thank you so much for inviting me today. 

Michelle Obama: So today I want to talk about your college experience, and how you felt as a young woman entering the corporate workforce. 

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: Yes, that’s great, I have many memories and experiences I would like to share today!

Interviewer: First, how did your family react when you told them you were going to college?

Interviewee: I was the first woman in my family to go to college, so that was already difficult for my family to comprehend my choice. 

Michelle Obama: Yes, I can understand why your choice would have been met with those reactions. I was also the first woman in my family to attend college, so I can understand your point of view.

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: I stood by my choice that I wanted to attend college. I wanted to be different from all of the other women in my family. I wanted to have my own career, I wanted to tell a story that hadn’t been told before. 

Michelle Obama: That’s great! Would you like to tell us a little bit more about your experience at college, and what happened after graduation. 

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: Yes, since I was a little girl, I was very different from the other girls. I always wanted to do something, I could never sit still. Everytime I had an idea I would have to make it happen. I was very curious and a bit mischievous. Deep down my parents always knew that I wanted to do more. When I told them I wanted to be an engineer, they were surprised but not shocked. In college, I was the only female in all of my classes for all 4 years.  

Michelle Obama: Wow, I assume that many other women, including myself, share that same experience.  

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: I was already used to being the only female in a large group of men, but, I think I was still very naive, because when I entered the workplace, I experienced more prejudices than I thought I would have.    

Michelle Obama: How was your college experience different from your experience in the workplace?

Daphne Delany-Hobart: Joining the workforce was a drastic change from the college scene. At work there were many more unspoken rules and stigma regarding a woman’s place. 

Michelle Obama: How did this stigma impact your career, and affect your daily life? 

Daphne Delany-Hobart: At this time in many places, women were regarded as intellectually inferior to men. This mindset bled into the workplace as well, and defined the way I was treated by many of my co-workers and bosses. 

Michelle Obama: Besides being prejudiced for being a woman in this field, did you receive any sexist rules to follow regarding your clothing choices? 

Daphne Delany-Hobart: Absolutely, I was required to dress as a “woman should”, they asked me to dress “modestly” and look “feminine”. However, many of these unspoken fashion rules were the social norm for women at this time. 

Michelle Obama: What rules were subjected on you based on the clothing that was appropriate for you to wear?

Daphne Delany-Hobart: My job required me to be very hands on in some cases, and on others to be more professionally dressed. For the men, it was normal for them to dress more casually when visiting a work site; however, for me the case was a bit different. Since we were at a work site, I needed to dress more casually to be able to work. Because of the norms at the time, I chose clothing that was similar to what men wore at this time, but I tried my best to make it look more appropriate and feminine, to abide by the norms of the time. I wore similar clothes to what the men wore; at work this didn’t seem as odd, but as soon as I left work, I could feel all of the stares, and hear the murmurs of the strangers that passed me by. 

Michelle Obama: In what ways do you think you were required to conform to these norms, even though you worked in a male dominated field?

Daphne Delany-Hobart: I was expected to dress the part. I had to be “modest” and “ladylike”, while working a job, that had previously been populated by males. 

Michelle Obama:  In what ways did you try to change the stereotype of the working woman, and how were your efforts received?

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: I decided to defy the stereotype by wearing pants to work. I didn’t think the reactions I received would be so drastic. The reactions I received differed greatly compared to when I wore a skirt or a dress. My male co-workers were often confused and didn’t think that pants were appropriate attire for women. This prejudice transcended past the workplace, and my new clothing choice, was received by many objections and protests from many of the people around me. 

Michelle Obama: How do you think a young woman’s experiences today would differ from yours? How do you think fashion in the workplace has evolved?

Daphne Delany-Hobart: I think that today women have the ability to dress in ways that they enjoy. I believe fashion in the workplace has evolved tremendously, and this has benefitted women.  Women now have more choices on what is seen as “appropriate” dress for work, and this has led to women being more comfortable and perform better in the workplace. There are still so many barriers we have to cross to reach gender equality, but so many stigmas and norms regarding a woman’s place in the workplace have changed since I had first entered the workplace, and that can be seen as a testament to how far women have come in the past decades. 

Michelle Obama: Wonderful, I agree and relate with your messages so well. However this is all the time we have today. Thank you so much for talking with us today, your valor and courageousness can be an example for many young women that want to follow your footsteps.  

Daphne G. Delany-Hobart: I am so honored for being here today, and being able to share a little bit of my story. Thank you so much Michelle for having me today!

Magazine Article 

This is an article from a magazine like The New Yorker, Vogue, or The New York Times that talks about the changes regarding clothing for women in a professional workplace. 

How Far Have We Come to Gender Equality? Just ask Women’s Fashion. 

A perspective on the changes women’s clothing has experienced since women started entering the workplace

Abigail L. Ureña 

The femenist movement of the 1960s made a huge impact on the way women dressed. The 60s were a decade of change for women; new fashion trends were popularized and the clothes that were advertised and marketed for women that worked outside of the home became more modern. The way in which work clothes have evolved, as well as the stereotypes of “the working woman” has changed throughout the decades. 

After World War 1 and World War 2, women’s roles in the workplace became more prominent. These new roles called for more modern ways of dressing; women’s clothing now had more relaxed lines and silhouettes, and did not restrict women in many ways clothes had done before. Women became liberated from corsets and full bustles that were custom previously. These women that were now emancipated from the constraints of their attire could be seen carrying out new roles as working members of society, this allowed women to further integrate into a professional workplace. Thus, society adopted the structured look as androgynous as women’s rights advanced. This was said to have sparked the second wave of feminism in the U.S.

During the 1960s, dressing became more casual than in the past decades. It became more appropriate for women to show more  of their legs. During this time women began sporting minidresses and miniskirts, which were becoming very fashionable. In the last decades, the casual trend became commonplace. Since then, there has been a more relaxed attitude when it pertains to clothes worn by female employees in a professional environment. There have been measures to move away from the traditional    suit in the workplace, and more women began swapping out their skirts and dresses for pants in the workplace. 

In the 60s, many women wore bright and pastel colors, compared to the muted and subtle hues worn by women decades before them. Despite the advances women were required to appear “ladylike”, and dress “respectable” by wearing dresses with high necklines. Due to the stigma still placed on women’s clothing at this time, Pussy-bow blouses became increasingly popular. This fashion trend was popularized by working women, in an attempt to feminize a very traditionally masculine look. Pussy-bow blouses were viewed as a fitting equivalent to the traditional masculine suit-and-tie look; for many women this was seen as an attempt to be feminine but fit into what was then a male world.

Women now have more options than ever on what is seen as acceptable clothing options to wear to work. As jeans became increasingly appropriate attire for the workplace, women no longer feel the need to impose their status of power through suits. The last decade has seen women explore more style choices than ever, pantsuits are almost obsolete, and women now dress more closely to what they would wear when not working; a vernacular style of dressing. Women are now reasserting their femininity by wearing dresses and skirts—a new type of power play. Now it can be interpreted that skinny suits and high heels, prove that being powerful and being feminine aren’t mutually exclusive. The option of having more clothing styles to wear for work, shows the strides women have made in the workplace since the 1960s. 

What women wear to work says a lot about how far we’ve come in gender equality. Formality in workplace dress codes, have decreased since women started entering the workplace. Currently many professional, workplaces have adopted a more casual style; women can now sport many different outfit choices, they also have the ability to wear many different hair styles and makeup choices. In regards to gender equality there’s still so much to be done, but just by looking at the evolution and modernization of workplace fashions, one can see how much progress women have made. 

Abigail L. Ureña                      

Prof. Sara Jacobson

ENGL 11000 R

29 October 2019 

How Fashion and Dress in the Workplace has Evolved and How These Changes Affect Stereotypes in the Workplace

Due to the large feminist movement of the 1960s, women were enjoying more prominent roles in the workforce, which called for new styles of clothing. The 60s were a decade of change for women; they replaced the men that were now at war (Khan Academy). Many women worked outside the home before the war, however, it was usually certain groups: women of color, and single women, who have almost always had to work. During and after the war, work became abruptly available for an increasing number of women. These new roles called for more modern and different ways of dressing. This research essay will mention the new fashion trends that were popularized and the clothes that were advertised and marketed for women that worked outside of the home. The way in which work clothes have evolved as well as how the stereotypes of working women has changed throughout the decades, creating a larger divide between these two decades.This essay primarily focuses on women, as they relate to appearance and professional settings because many of the issues faced by women in professional settings are unique. Therefore, it would not be appropriate to address these issues as they relate to both men and women within the same framework.

 In the early 2000s, the increasing number of women that were entering the workplace ceased, due to a large recession. The portion of working women dropped without bouncing back; the gender wage gap and the faster growing male wages, discouraged women from joining the workforce. The inception of the new century brought many things for women, and this led to a substantial change in the culture and fashion of the professional work environment. The differences between workplace culture in the 1960s and the 2000s was immense. The goal is to understand how fashion has affected these differences, and how they have led to different stereotypes in a professional setting. 

The thesis Clothing, Image, and Presence: Women in the Corporate Workplace, written by Colombe Nadeau-O’Shea, describes all of the aspects that can either enhance or detract from a person’s overall career success in a professional workplace. According to Nadeau-O’Shea, clothing, appearance, and grooming, are all aspects that interact to create an individual’s physical and psychological identity in the workplace. In this thesis, the author sets the mood for her analysis by using stance and language to argue that the obsession with beauty and physical appearance, detracts from a women’s intellectual value at the workplace.  The main reason for this discrepancy is that the history of women as workers within corporate settings is quite different than that of men. Nadeau-O’Shea focuses on the history of women entering the workplace and how beauty standards have affected the success of these women in the workplace. The author says, “ Despite advances in this regard, young women continue to be victims of this beauty obsession, which is effectively harming many women physically, financially and emotionally” (Nadeau-O’Shea 5). Within an office environment it is of the utmost importance to appear and dress appropriately; a requirement expected from both men and women. A corporate office is a place often filled with confusion when it pertains to navigating complex gender dynamics. The author mentions the burden women face everyday in the workplace, and the factors that have to do with this issue; “pressure that women face to adhere to cultural beauty norms, both on a personal level and professional level, and often despite receiving little to no feedback, is compounded by the relatively “new” relationship that women have with the corporate world”. (Nadeau-O’Shea 5). For many centuries, a man’s place was in the office or at work to provide monetarily, and a woman’s place was in the home, to tend to the family and care for the home. This dynamic has been steadily changing since the 1960s; when women first began working outside the home. Even though a large gender gap exists in the corporate world, we are beginning to see more women enter the corporate world and many even reach its upper echelons. During the earlier decades of the 20th century, many efforts were made to introduce women into the workforce; however, many laws and customs made it difficult for married women and women of color to retain jobs. 

 In fact, in 1942, a federal National Selective Service program was put in place to recruit women into the industrial labour force during the War, due to the severe shortage of workers. The program, however, sought only to register single women, excluding married women entirely despite the severe need. Marriage was such an integral aspect of Western culture during this time that there were laws in place that barred married women from working. (Nadeau-O’Shea 15)

The exponentially growing number of educated women holding professional jobs, ceased in the 2000s. One of the reasons for this is the gender wage gap and discrimination, which provides less incentive and motivation for married women to continue working outside of the home. This fact, paired with the much broader scope of clothing and fashion available to women, poses an issue for many women in corporate settings. 

Women have a unique relationship with clothing and fashion. Not only are women judged based on their dressing styles in a professional environment, but are also judged in contemporary society, so much so that often their appearance is used to make assumptions about their cognitive abilities. Nadeau-O’Shea, provides an example how women may be perceived to be more emotional and have lower cognitive abilities than men. 

For example, middle-class, Western cultures in Europe and North-America still use gendered terms and relationships drawn from biology to describe other phenomena that are completely non-biological, like politics, morality and social relations. The idea is that inherent gender divisions, male versus female, and the stereotypes that accompany them, are natural because they “…grew out of a scientific explanation of biological sexuality”. This notion is also tied to the fact that the qualities that are often thought of as physically beautiful in women are simply symbols of female behavior that a culture or period in time considers desirable, meaning that “beauty” is always prescribing behavior, and not appearance. The implications of this 12 reasoning are significant: connections between the human body, gender, words and acts are reinforced, leading to gendered bodies being judged and interpreted on “unequally valued dualities: good/bad, matter/spirit, male/female”. These aspects indicate that appearance, gender and cognitive abilities have been intertwined for a long time. (Nadeau-O’Shea 11, 12) 

Despite the immense number of women working in professional settings; gender equality has not yet been achieved. Evidence of this divide is very abundant in the corporate workplace. Gender discrimination and stereotyping are rampant within these settings, and may serve to undermine and challenge women’s roles in the workplace. Still there are many barriers to overcome the discrimination of women in the workplace. 

The first world war brought many changes, including the roles of women and their clothing. The dawn of WWI liberated women’s clothing, and this showed how relaxing the lines and silhouettes of the clothing did not restrict women in many ways as clothes had done before; this contributed to many women joining the workforce during this time. Wartime liberated women from corsets and dresses with full bustles. These women that were now emancipated from the contraists of their attire could be seen carrying out new roles as working members of society. These wartime efforts to make women more prominent in society, has had an impact on fashion now. Pantsuits and more relaxed fits, which are customary now, can be dedicated to the change in fashion standards during the times of war. There was a huge distinction between the  pre-war “restriction” fashion and the post-war “release” fashion (Pidd 1) .

In the 1960s, “37.8% of women in the United States participated in the workforce” (U.S. Census Bureau). This was a massive increase compared to the past decades. During the 1960s clothing became slightly less casual than the past decades. Men started wearing more fitted suits and hats; it became more fashionable and appropriate for women to show their legs more, “minidresses and miniskirts became fashionable for women for the first time” (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill).  A Presidential Executive Order in 1967 banned the discrimination on the basis of sex in hiring and employment. This allowed women to further integrate into a professional workplace. Thus, society adopted the structured look as androgynous as women’s rights advanced. This was said to have sparked the second wave of feminism in the U.S.

In the 2000s, “59.5% of women participated in the U.S. workforce” (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). Attire in the workplace experienced many changes during this decade. New guidelines were established, these new guidelines prohibited certain restrictions and requirements placed on women’s clothing. After these guidelines were announced in New York City, many of these standards were banned in the professional setting,  “Enforcing dress codes, uniforms, and grooming standards that impose different requirements based on sex or gender.” (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). This means that employers cannot require men to wear ties unless women are required to wear ties; women do not have to wear heels unless men have to wear heels. Since the 2000s, there has been a more relaxed attitude when it pertains to clothes worn by employees in a professional environment. There have been measures to move away from the traditional suit in the workplace, and more women began swapping out their skirts and dresses for pants in the workplace. However, “ with jeans allowed as regularly in the office as blazers, women no longer feel the need to impose their status of power through suits. Women are re-asserting their femininity by wearing dresses and skirts—a new type of power play.” (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). 

What women wear to work says a lot about how far we’ve come in gender equality. According to the author, Theresa Avila, “To See How Far Women Have Come, Just Look at Their Work Clothes” (Mic). In the 1960s, women were required to appear ‘ladylike’, and dress ‘respectable’ by wearing dresses with high necklines. During this decade, the American economy grew and legislation for equal employment gave women incentives to join the workforce, “more women populated offices across the United States,…. Women also remained single for longer periods of time and stayed in school longer, the report found, thereby increasing their chances to move up the career ladder.” (Mic). The author used tone and genre to get her message across to her audience. The author mentions that, “Our skinny pants and heels prove that being powerful and being feminine aren’t mutually exclusive” (Mic), this helps the audience better understand the contrasts of dressing for work between the decades. In the 2000s, more options became available and acceptable for women to wear to work. The last decade has seen women explore more style choices than ever, pantsuits are almost obsolete, and women now dress more closely to what they would wear when not working, a vernacular style of dressing. 

Fashion trends that became popular in the 1960s, were pastel colors (Mashable). In many photographs depicting what women wore to work in the 1960s it can be seen that many of these women wore bright and pastel colors, compared to the muted and subtle hues worn by women decades before them. During this time many women also sported shorter hair styles, and wore their hair in volumized updo styles. According to Business Insider, a trend that was popular among working women of the 60s, were pussy-bow blouses; “One fashion trend in particular took on special significance for career-oriented women. Pussy-bow blouses were viewed as a fitting equivalent to the traditional masculine suit-and-tie look.” (Business Insider). For many women this was seen as an attempt to be feminine but fit into what was then a male world. Formality in workplace dress codes, have decreased since the 2000s. In the 2000s, it could be seen that many workplaces had adopted a more casual style, women now sported many different outfit choices, they also had the ability to wear many different hair styles and makeup choices. 

In a dissertation written by Andrew Douglas Hale, titled The Effects of Race, Gender, and Clothing Style on Stereotype Activation, the author describes how one’s outward appearance shapes the perceptions others hold of them and how they can become incredibly useful for people in all points of life, from interviewing for a job to making a good impression on a date (Hale 4).  This becomes relevant later when women began wearing pants. In an interview with my grandma, Felicia Paredes, she mentioned that when she began wearing pants to work, the reactions she received differed greatly compared to when she wore a skirt or a dress. Felicia mentioned that her male co-workers were often confused and didn’t think that pants were appropriate attire for women. This prejudice transcended past the workplace, and into her daily life. Her new clothing choice, was received by many “objections, protests, and rude comments” from many of the people around her. At this time, it was so unfathomable for women to make such a daring fashion statement as was wearing pants. The shorter hair styles, bold makeup looks, and vibrant colors popularized at this time, can be used as evidence that women in the workforce changed fashion because they opted for trends that were more suitable for their new roles in the workplace. 

In an article written in 2007 titled “The DOs and don’ts of Workplace Fashion” it listed the “golden rules” for dressing appropriately for the workplace. This article mentions that one should, “DO dress for the job you want and not the one you’ve got — appearance is a key indicator of how seriously you take your career and your company. Are you striving to move up the career ladder or do you look more like the handyman carrying it around?”(Aziz 1). This may have had an impact on the women of the 20th century, they adopted new styles of dressing and their positions in the workplace became more prominent and significant. As the decades passed, the women began wearing clothes that allowed them to have more mobility in their daily lives; this was proportional to the mobility they experienced in the workplace. 

Donna Karan once said in an interview, “The reason is started Donna Karan, it was a line for me and my friends,…. this line had seven pieces, a navy blue blazer, a white t-shirt, a pair of jeans… and a trench coat”. These pieces became standardized as part of women’s fashion. Karan, is a pioneer in women’s workwear fashion. She used simple silhouettes, and versatile colors and items to create a look that has become a standard for the modern working woman. Karan also stated, “Women do make the change, women are the change makers, there is a change that is happening right now that is far bigger than fashion”. This can be credited to the women that changed fashion in the workplace. The prejudices that women suffer based on their preferred style of dress is immense; fashion in the workplace has evolved tremendously so has the stereotypes women in a professional face (Hale 8).

The obsession with outward, physical beauty is highly problematic for a number of reasons, one of them being that this value placed on appearance serves to detract from women’s intellectual value, which is directly applicable to their presence and success in the workplace. Women’s new roles in the workplace called for more modern and versatile modes of dressing. Since women first entered the workforce, fashion has evolved enormously. The stereotypes and prejudices that women face have also evolved. Women in the workforce is what changed fashion. Their new positions in society called for more modern ways of dressing, which prompted them to begin wearing pants. Women now have the largest options on what clothes to wear that are appropriate for a professional workplace. The newer fashion trends and more versatile modes of dressing have allowed women to become more successful in the workplace. 

Works Cited

“100 Years of Feminist History Explained in 10 Women’s Work Suits.” 100 Years of Feminist History Explained in 10 Women’s Work Suits – Blog | MBA@UNC, 1 Mar. 2017, https://onlinemba.unc.edu/blog/Feminist-History-in-Womens-Work-Suits/.

Cain, Áine. “THEN AND NOW: The Progression of Work Fashion from the 1950s to Today.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 3 Aug. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/work-clothes-history-2018-6#today-the-fields-of-finance-law-and-accounting-tend-to-require-conservative-and-traditional-modes-of-dress-36.

Cain, Áine. “The Progression of Office Culture from the 50s to Today.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 12 Oct. 2018, https://www.businessinsider.com/office-culture-then-and-now-2018-5#by-the-1980s-some-companies-became-more-intentional-about-their-work-cultures-according-to-a-1996-paper-by-iowa-state-universitys-taysir-m-khatib-he-wrote-that-organizational-culture-became-a-hot-topic-for-research-in-the-1980s-owing-to-the-notion-that-culture-has-a-powerful-impact-on-the-organizations-outcomes-and-its-success-24.

“Carolina Herrera on Fashion’s Evolution.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 1 Dec. 2017, https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/01/opinion/carolina-herrera-fashion-evolution.html.

Cbs. “Designing Woman Donna Karan.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 4 May 2010, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/designing-woman-donna-karan/.

“Donna Karan on Her Life in Fashion | Vogue Voices.” YouTube, YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AZLRZ8I_hQA.

Hale, Andrew Douglas. “The Effects of Race, Gender, and Clothing Style on Stereotype Activation.” College of William and Mary, College of William and Mary, https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/8c3a/9cac4c8f0478f61ecd94a16c006126813576.pdf.

Harper. “Women Who Changed Fashion: The Designers.” Harper’s BAZAAR, Harper’s BAZAAR, 7 Oct. 2017, https://www.harpersbazaar.com/fashion/designers/g6477/designers-who-changed-fashion/.

“How the First World War Liberated Women’s Wardrobes; The Fashion and Freedom Exhibition Looks at the Way Clothes Restricted Women before the War — and Shows How Lines and Silhouettes Relaxed during the Conflict as Women Entered the Workplace Citation Metadata.” Gale Academic Onefile, https://go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/i.do?id=GALE|A452307903&v=2.1&u=cuny_ccny&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w.

Nadeau-O’Shea, Colombe. “Clothing, Image, and Presence: Women in the Corporate Workplace.” Wilfrid Laurier University, Wilfrid Laurier University, file:///Users/abby/Downloads/O’Shea Nadeau, Colombe MA Fashion MRP.pdf.

“Second-Wave Feminism.” Khan Academy, Khan Academy, https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/us-history/postwarera/1960s-america/a/second-wave-feminism.

“The DOs and Don’ts of Workplace Fashion.” Gale Academic Onefile, https://go-gale-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/ps/i.do?&id=GALE|A160803558&v=2.1&u=cuny_ccny&it=r&p=ITOF&sw=w.

“To See How Far Women Have Come, Just Look at Their Work Clothes.” Mic, https://www.mic.com/articles/120163/to-see-how-far-women-have-come-just-look-at-their-work-clothes.

US Census Bureau. “Search Results.” Results, 4 Apr. 2019, https://www.census.gov/search-results.html?searchType=web&cssp=SERP&q=women in the workforce.

Wild, Chris. “The Evolution of Women’s Workwear Through the Decades.” Mashable, Mashable, 22 Oct. 2014, https://mashable.com/2014/10/22/womens-workwear-20th-century/.

Abigail L. Ureña                      

Prof. Sara Jacobson

ENGL 11000 R

27 September 2019 

How fashion affects gender stereotypes from a rhetorical perspective

Clothing is an essential part of life. What people wear everyday has an impact on how they go about their day. What a person wears can determine how they feel, look, or act. The way people dress reveals more about a person than some of their actions do, this is true especially for those who struggle with their identity, and dress not according to their gender stereotype. What a person wears will have an impact on how they are perceived to be. This very true for men and women, however, for women this is a constant dilemma. One of the main purposes of clothing is to be able to identify the proper gender. Our clothing, like many other material things, becomes part of our identity. Although the gender identifying and creating duty has been served by clothing for hundreds of years, several articles of clothing have recently been adopted by both sexes. Despite significant changes and leaps forward in the roles and opportunities open to women, the U.S. is still in large part a patriarchal society; this is partly due to the fact that the associations with women’s clothing is not the same as men’s. This essay will analyze the functions and effects of gender roles associated with clothing on the female population. 

In a thesis, written by Rosa Crepax, the author sets the mood for her analysis by using tone and purpose to argue that modern androgyny, in fact leads to more defined gender roles. Crepax does not focus on one singular view, instead she focuses on multiple points of view and how they are all related.           

Accounting for the fluid phenomenon of contemporary androgynous fashion, I consider the ways in which fashion intermediaries produce and circulate meanings, and how different audiences receive them, but, instead of explaining such meanings in terms of simple paradigms of production and reception, the focus is placed on the dynamics between all of the various actors that participate in the development of the new androgyny (Crepax 11). 

Women walk around everyday being judged; from the cradle to their grave women are groomed to act a certain way and to dress a certain way. When women stray away from these social norms they are judged even more harshly by patronizers. Since society has normalized these very specific gender roles and stereotypes, new forms of dressing have been introduced into the mainstream world. One of these newer methods of dressing, is called ‘androgynous’: this is basically like dressing ‘unisex’, this was intended to transcend gender roles in fashion and make them more ambigious when dressing.  Androgyny has revolutionized the world of fashion, because, it would essentially be meant to break the barrier of dressing according to a specific gender; however, this seems to be doing the opposite.

 Articles associated with the new androgynous fashion describe pairs of jeans as boyfriend jeans and t-shirts as tomboyish, they teach women how to wear masculine clothes and look sexy and feminine rather than “mannish”, or suggest they wear their androgynous coats without their arms in, so that it will look like it was draped on them by their man (Crepax 13).

In the newspaper article, the author uses stance and language to try to persuade her audience that clothes, are the ones that create these gender stereotypes. She starts by stating the harmonious hatred towards rugby in her family. She mentions that if she were allowed to practice this sport as a child she would feel less resentment towards it; however, she says that “if I’d been allowed to play rugby league as a kid growing up in Sydney, rather than suffering under the gender apartheid that barred girls from participating.” (Dux) The author mentions rugby as a way to introduce the reader to the prejudiced gender stereotypes when it comes to clothing. She later describes a humiliating experience her mother suffered when trying to enter a rugby club to have a fancy dinner. The author describing her personal experiences, serves as a catalyst to persuade her audience. Dux, explains that fashion and gender rules are still enforced very apparently in every walk of life. She gives examples of the implied dress codes in a professional workplace and at the beach;

Consider the corporate world, where office dress etiquette is premised on a strict gender divide, with men in mandatory suits and ties and women forced into skirts, blouses and uncomfortable heels. Then there’s the beach, where each summer countless women are traumatised by having to fit into flimsy lycra undies, also known as “swimwear”, while men get to wear comfortable, baggy shorts. (Dux)

Monica Dux even mentions the gender stereotypes embedded in society. She describes the discrepancies between children’s clothing and uniforms. The author concludes by saying that clothes can’t only be blamed in this situation, but instead we should discuss the value that we attach to masculinity and femininity, “underlying these reactions is a profound disrespect for women and all that we associate with femininity” (Dux). 

The third source I used was an essay by Hammad Raza on the role of fashion and the construction of gender identities. Raza successfully used tone to inform his audience about the affiliation of gender role stereotypes and fashion. According to Raza, “Fashion generates and alters identities based on the gender-based relations in a society.” (Raza 1) He supports his claims by including many studies done on the relationship between fashion and gender. The author states that, “Clothes mark a line of difference between the social world and the naked body, thus acting as an agency wherein social expectations with regard to gender can be coagulated into reality and are made obvious in the body”(Raza 2). This is an example of how Raza used tone that is appropriate for his audience to describe how the relationship between, the world of fashion and social constructs is fostered. The author persuades the audience that gender roles and stereotypes, are due to fashion, and that this has many negative connotations on society. Raza says that, “fashion has not only adversely affected women, but also men by robbing them off their masculinity and natural outlook” (Raza 4) and “ blame fashion for begetting [sic] womanly men and manly women” (Raza 4). The author further claims his idea by saying that, “the modern world, fashion has been diffused vertically in class-formulation and horizontally blurring the gendered differentiation with the help of highly mediatized fashion industry, costume magnates and dress designers, it has become a zeitgeist of our times”. Raza successfully informed his audience, and he stated that the modern fashion world and the way of dressing is largely to blame for the increasingly segregated and prejudiced gender roles.

On the website source, the author asserts that the stereotypes of gender that are created by fashion is due to every individual culture. They use the ideas of cultural norms and dress to captivate the audience, and parallel them to modern fashion teach them about how fashion affects gender stereotypes. As an example, the author states that in some parts of the world such as Indonesia, West Africa and Scotland, men use an article of clothing that would correspond to the definition of a skirt in the United States. In Indonesia and West Africa, these ‘skirts’ are used by both sexes; however, in Scotland the kilt is worn to display the specific gender roles, and it “ represents the height of masculinity”(Gender, Dress, and Fashion). On the website source, the author also claims that color cue and gender specific color of clothing increase the development of a socially constructed gender identity; “Gender-specific attire enhances the internalization of expectations for gender-specific behavior”(Gender, Dress, and Fashion). The author of this article, uses examples from pop culture to encourage their audience to keep reading and learn about gender as a social construct. In mentioning, Mrs. Doubtfire (Columbus, Chris), the author uses pathos to persuade their audience.By using a popular movie, the author is using something that will resonate with the audience and help the audience relate to what the author has written. The author says, “Gender is a socially constructed phenomenon, and not all cultures aspire to the same physical ideal for men and women as those in Western societies. Likewise, dress can symbolically convey meanings about gender specific to a culture” (Gender, Dress, and Fashion). The author also states that, cultural standards of beauty and dress codes are a reason why gender roles exist and why they are often very stereotypical. 

The “rules” that surround gendered clothes aren’t about fashion, or about taste. They are about how society emphasizes a difference, enforcing and reiterating restrictive ideas about what it is to be a girl or a boy, or a man or woman. Perhaps the only solution is to challenge the rules of fashion is to challenge our settled ideas about gender roles in society. The clothes we choose to wear can speak volumes about our identity, and the way we interpret the choices of others’ clothing can define our relationships and communication with them before we ever say a word. 

Works Cited 

Akdemir, Assist. Prof. Doc Nihan. “Deconstruction of Gender Stereotypes Through Fashion.” Semantic Scholar, European Journal of Social Science, 2018, Volume 5, Issue 2 https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/fbda/9b3aeff20dc30d4924032f07f792b88fa611.pdf.

Columbus, Chris, director. Mrs. Doubtfire. Twentieth Century Fox, 1993.

Crepax, Rosa. The Aesthetics of Mainstream Androgyny: A Feminist Analysis of a Fashion Trend. University of London, May 2016, http://research.gold.ac.uk/19832/1/SOC_EditedThesis_CrepaxR_2017.pdf.

“Defining Gender Roles.” Gender Roles and Gender Stratification, http://www.people.vcu.edu/~jmahoney/gender101.htm#Genderequality.

Dux, Monica. “Clothes Maketh the Gender Stereotypes.” The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 Feb. 2017, https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/clothes-maketh-the-gender-stereotypes-20170223-gujgpu.html.

“Gender, Dress, and Fashion.” Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia.com, 28 Aug. 2019, https://www.encyclopedia.com/fashion/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/gender-dress-and-fashion.

Raza, Hammad. “Fashion and Gender Roles.” Academia.edu, https://www.academia.edu/5349062/Fashion_and_Gender_Roles.

Shibboleth Authentication Request, https://journals-sagepub-com.ccny-proxy1.libr.ccny.cuny.edu/doi/full/10.1177/0891241612466108.