WOMEN have a great time at the University. Chivalrous young men open doors for them, buy meals for them and give them great ego satisfaction, especially around this time of year, when sweats come off and skirts get shorter. But this appreciation becomes a burden once college women start chasing after the corner office. Young women almost feel that they must hide their good looks in order to be taken seriously. In other words, attractive women must overcome the stereotypical role of "cute secretary." The successful woman of today learns to channel her feminine mystique to get what she wants without going so far as to sacrifice her integrity.
Women like Katie Couric suffer the double-edged sword of beauty and charisma. They disarm men with their charm, but those same men shy away from promoting these talented women to executive positions. Some people worry that Couric, recently hired as the first female evening network news anchor, cannot handle serious news and that she has mastered the art of the morning news show and should stick to what she does best. However, Couric would never have been selected as the next Cronkite without the Today show. Men must appear serious and trustworthy; women must be serious, trustworthy and likeable. The Today Show allowed Couric a place at breakfast table because she was an attractive woman but also a woman whom people felt they could trust to cover real issues. Couric did not eschew her good looks or hide them behind the rectangular black-rimmed glasses we stereotypically associate with female academics. She embraced her beauty and channeled them for her own benefit. Couric had to become "Katie" to America, and Americans apparently are on a first name basis with Hillary and Oprah, too.
Intimacy with viewers may not be a bad thing, but there is an unconscious lesser reverence for those we refer to by their first names, especially in the realm of politics and business. And the only prominent people we talk about by their first names are women. If women ever want to see a woman in the Oval Office, they better start calling Hillary "Senator Clinton." Indeed, this is a fine line to skirt.
In fact, successful men have used attractiveness and charm to their advantage, too. Bill Clinton and John F. Kennedy rose to the presidency because they captivated both men and women when they spoke. Granted, they were both womanizers, but the point still rests. However, when a woman like Couric embraces her natural charm, she is called "not serious."
Some feminists shudder at women needing to look cute in order to get ahead. As the argument always goes, women should be judged by their intellect and character. This would certainly be nice, but it is not even true for men. Ann Lane, a Professor in the Department of Studies in Women and Gender, agrees that looking good should not be twisted into a gender issue. Women, just like men, should wear what is "flattering, but appropriate to the job." Politics Prof. Stephen Rhoads agrees with this statement, and further asserts that ambitious women must strike a difficult balance. According to him, women cannot be "over-the-top manly," but they must "seem strong enough to stare down tyrants."
Modern women often feel that they must present themselves either as driven, capable intellectuals or as trivial sexual objects. Yet women can walk the line between the two. We are privy to this balance every day on Grounds. The young women who go on to become presidents of Student Council command respect because of their personalities and amiability as well as their intellect.
When former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen came to speak to a group of young University women active in politics, she told a story that illustrates the battle every woman faces who refuses to settle for anything less than the head seat in the boardroom. While she was preparing to run for office, her campaign team hired strategists to help Shaheen develop a good media face. When she walked into the room one day to meet a media strategist, he said, "Lose the bag." Feminists call this playing by the man's rules. Successful women call this smart politics. Because, in the end after Shaheen was elected governor of New Hampshire, she had male assistants carry her purse. As I know from living with my mother for 18 years, women always get the last word.
Marta Cook's column usually appear Fridays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at mcook@cavalierdaily.com.
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