Having a huge business/office work past, it was recommended to dress professional, and be well groomed, that included women putting on their face everyday. The general consensus is when you look good, you feel good, you are confident, and other people are confident in you and/or your service/product.
I never wear makeup. I do work in a professional environment (defence engineering) but don’t have time/can’t be bothered/couldn’t justify the expense, and I refuse to, in about equal parts.
I can’t cope with this idea that a woman must paint her face as part of professional grooming and I’d be prepared to lose/leave a job over it. I have no problem with dress codes, nor with the need to look immaculate in some occupations. The difference to me is that we
all have to dress and tidy our hair, so variations in the way we do that to suit our job is reasonable, but my face is
me and I think it’s unacceptable to suggest a female employee must paint/change/alter hers to be considered “professional”. (This is not aimed at you, OLHope, I know you’re stating a general expectation.)
The exceptions to that are performing arts and modelling where make up is a part of bringing out features and expressions on camera and on stage, but in those cases it applies to both genders and achieves a specific purpose.
It also bothers me a little when people talk of women who can “get away” with not wearing make-up, as if there is some defined benchmark for a woman’s appearance rating that she must apologise for falling short of.
IMO some occupational make-up is self-defeating. When I had long hair and wore it up, it had to be a style I knew would stay up securely all day without three maintenance trips to the ladies room to re-fasten it. I feel the same about make-up - if it needs maintenance, forget it. Maybe the airline stewardesses look great when they first get to work but by halfway through their shift makeup usually looks tired and oily and my reaction is “yuck”, not, “isn’t that make-up the finishing touch to a nice professional appearance.” I’d rather see a clean face.
I am probably over-sensitive as my mother spent her whole life apologising to the rest of the world for everything including her appearance, and I had to put a conscious wall up against her projecting the same attitudes onto me.
All that said, I have no issues whatsoever with other women wearing makeup. If it makes any woman feel happier, more confident, more feminine or she just plain likes to do it, then I’m all for it and it’s a good thing. It’s attempts to make it a requirement or inferences that a woman is ungroomed or unprofessional till she paints her face that I object to.
Doesn’t help that I’m on the small side (five feet). Sigh.
When I have a special event I also use on eye-liner, eye shadow, mascara, and lip gloss.
).
