Men and Women in the Workplace

First of all, apologies for not posting on my regular Wednesday slot. It turned into a rather busy (though productive) day.

Good news: I now HAVE A JOB! This is for my "gap year", and my sigh of relief could not be bigger.

TOP TIP OF THE DAY: Friends and connections are worth having (I was tipped off by a friend and an existing employee of the company).
People may tell you that the days of "it's not what you know, it's who you know" are behind us. Wrong. 

But bad news of the day: Got feedback from a training contract interview I was unsuccessful on.

And the result of this led to the topic of the post today. 

Lizzy, why is this relevant to men and women?

A good question. Whilst my feedback from my interview was generally helpful, though completely frustrating that I got so close, one point that was brought up was the unsuitability of my shoes.
This in no way affected their decision, but apparently some people brought it up.

The shoes I wore were tan with gold accented pumps. Whilst, I admit, they are not the "smartest" footwear in the world. It got me thinking. And it got me angry.

So if you are a closed-minded guy you may want to click off as this will be a slight feminist approach today, as much as I hate the word "feminist" I cannot think of another way to classify it.

Men have it easy...

And I hate it. Office dress for men is so annoyingly easy, because social tradition has deemed that a suit, shirt, tie and leather smart shoes are the norm.
Women however do not have such a luxury as this. When I attend an interview I am always questioning myself. Do I wear a skirt/dress? If so, is it too short? How low-cut is the neckline? Is it too low cut?
And the issue of heels vs not heels just kills me.

THERE IS SO MUCH ROOM FOR ERROR. Which is pretty much solely on the shoulders of women. It is also so subjective. I turned up to a Linklaters event and was complimented on my black heels, and went to another career event in the same shoes and almost fell over and made a complete fool of myself.

I guess you can tell that I could rant about this for a while, and obviously inequality stretches into more than just fashion... But that argument is not one for here or now. 

So what can we do about it?

Well, as I noted before it can be really subjective. But from now on I am always going to err on the side of caution.
I have always had a "LBD" and by this I mean lucky black dress, which I wear to all professional interviews, and this is a dress purchased specifically for the office from an office section of a well-known shop. It has no drop in the neckline and the hem comes down just below the knee.

The shoes however I am still torn upon. Heels vs not heels specifically. My opinion has always been that heels should be avoided at least for interview stage as they tend to split opinion. On the other hand, they can look really quite smart and lots of professional women do wear them.
However, many women won't want to wear heels at all and why should they? 

So as you can tell I haven't come to much of a conclusion- so PLEASE if anyone has any ideas please share them below, or on Twitter. I have another interview on Tuesday so I need the help! Even in all my research people have different opinions. However this article seems to be particularly relevant and comprehensive:

http://talentegg.ca/incubator/2011/03/10/what-shoes-should-you-wear-to-your-next-job-interview-tips-from-an-image-expert/

At least I get some retail therapy... (I probably just made all the "feminists" mad by saying that).

On a side note I can thoroughly recommend Talent Egg as a portal for all graduates. It specialises in advice for "Generation Y" and content is written by young people who have been through university. It may be Canadian, but definitely relevant worldwide.