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Woman dyes her blonde hair brown to get ahead at work

Eileen Carey dyed her hair brown to be taken seriously at work. [Photo: Eileenmcarey/ Instagram]
Eileen Carey dyed her hair brown to be taken seriously at work. [Photo: Eileenmcarey/ Instagram]

Women in 2017 still have a lot to contend with in the workplace, from sexism to the gender pay gap. However, Eileen Carey, a CEO at Silicon Valley has discovered yet another discrimination you wouldn’t necessarily think of – hair colour.

Carey, a natural blonde was advised by a another female in the industry to dye her locks in order to get ahead in the business… and scarily enough, it worked.

Back from #summitatsea Game Face On!

A post shared by eileen carey (@eileenmcarey) on Nov 12, 2016 at 1:40pm PST

“Being a brunette helps me to look a bit older and I needed that, I felt, in order to be taken seriously,” Carey told the BBC.

The software professional isn’t the first woman to change her appearance in order to try and get ahead in a male-dominated industry. Whilst interviewing other blondes for her startup company, Carey discovered a considerable number of other females had done the same thing.

“There’s the fetishisation of blondes”, Carey explains, which means men are more likely to objectify blonde women, than brunettes.

Carey’s makeover did not stop there, she even went as far as wearing glasses and baggy clothes in order, “to be seen as a business leader and not as a sexual object.”

Eileen’s personal story is not only shocking, but proves that we still have some serious work to do when it comes to equality in the workplace.

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