The Woman's Card

Elle February 2016

 

Something about Ms. Taraji P. Henson in this leather jacket embellished with some brooches puts me in the mind of leather with lace and pearls with rock studs. Feminine and yet tough. I love the contrast. I also love when women celebrate their femininity in all spheres of their life. We can't play the "woman's card"-- that kind of talk is counterintuitive. As though it is possible to disrobe our feminine intuition, stylish armour and emotional intelligence and ability to multitask and leave them all in the parking garage before we enter the office/politics/a court room/the man's domain (???).

 

I remember my first day of work in a Washington DC law firm-- and I also remember all the other days in Brussels and one day in a Berlin law firm. One of my first impression on those first days of work was that the women dressed like men and appeared to dispense with anything that could remotely signal that they were female. In Brussels in particular, I formed the impression that the women were underdressed and barely groomed-- I actually/frequently saw t-shirts, biker boots, jeans and unwashed hair. I wondered at the time whether the grooming was a signal from the women to the dapperly dressed, be-suited male lawyers that the women were working so hard they scarcely had time to wash their hair and organise professionally-appropriate attire.

 

 

Madeleine Albright the Americans' first female Secretary of State loves brooches and used them during her time as Secretary of State to give clues on her thoughts of her state of mind or her sentiments about certain world leaders. Like the time she wore a "three monkeys" brooch on her visit to the Russian President Vladimir Putin-- according to Albright, it was a clear and definitive statement to President Putin that some of his foreign policies were pure evil. Albright actually has a book called "Read My Pins".

 

So what signal do we send to our male colleagues when we dress a certain way? If I wear a colourful, flowery dress, a brooch, lipstick and well-coiffed hair to work does it make me a less effective lawyer, does it cancel out my intelligence? And what is this "woman's card" they keep accusing Mrs Clinton of playing? Is there a "man's card"? Is the "woman card" in the same category as the "race card"? As a woman or a man, are you offended by this talk?