Manager-Level Businesswomen’s Personal Experiences of Appearance Management and Body Image

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the personal experiences of businesswomen regarding appearance management and their body image. To achieve this, diverse perspectives were employed, including critical, practical, and positive body image perspectives. Interviews were conducted with 17 Korean businesswomen with more than 10 years of work experience. The data were analyzed using a phenomenological approach to understand their lived experiences of appearance management and body image. The participants acknowledged that appearance is important in the workplace - more so for women than for men. They commented that appearance may play an important role in displyaing social attractiveness to strangers, but other elements of social attractiveness such as liveliness or social skills take prominence in established relationships. Businesswomen, particularly those whose professions involve the display of appearance, are more likely to engage in aesthetic labor or the unpaid labor of managing their physical appearance in order to meet expectations at work. In general, however, these women considered appearance management to be a practice of self-care which seems to demonstrate their positive body image. This study has significance in that it strived to understand the subjective, lived experiences of businesswomen, including their thoughts and emotions related to appearance management and body image.