When gender war spills into office dress code space

Last week, a 33-year-old woman in Manhattan alleged that she was forced out of her job at Citibank after her male managers deemed her ‘too distracting’, claiming her ‘body shape’ drew too much attention. Was this a matter of gender discrimination or are women responsible for how they project themselves at work? While the women we spoke to feel dressing is a personal choice that should be decent enough not to attract attention, men seem more comfortable taking the politically correct path.

‘Indecent clothes give the wrong idea’
Virginia D’Souza, 23, has been following dress codes since college, which has conditioned her accordingly. “If I wear something casual to work, my mood automatically becomes casual and I don’t feel like working,” says this marketing executive. At her office, which goes casual on Saturdays, people have been found to pass comments if someone wears casuals on other days. 

The dress code in companies is mostly uniform for men and women, although the restrictions for women are more. “Dress codes are very gender based. Women are passive and don’t go around ogling men if they don’t dress up well. But, since women are sometimes treated as sex objects, they will attract attention,” says Chetna Jain, 32, finance consultant in an IT firm. However, there are some who feel that proper dressing should be a woman’s lookout. “Girls have more options of dressing inappropriately than guys. For men, it’s just a question of jeans or formal trousers,” says Samali M Basu, 26, a senior marketing officer. At Basu’s office  people are given written warnings (three warnings leads to a termination letter) if the dress code is broken.

“Dressing up for office is more about professionalism. Wearing anything indecent gives the wrong impression to colleagues and clients,” Basu says. Jain and her friend learnt that lesson the hard way.  Immediately after joining, her friend wore a skirt with a slit and was treated to a sudden rise in attention. Lesson learnt, they now dress in clothes that are ‘more professional’. D’Souza puts this behaviour down to human nature, “If you wear something revealing, people will either compliment you or check you out”. 

In those offices that do not have  a dress code, dressing is more a personal choice. Jain works in an office that follows an unofficial ‘dress code’ based on decency. She believes that dress codes should be an individual choice and not enforced. “If you are comfortable in your clothes and your colleagues’ reaction to it, then wear what you wish,” she says. 
 
‘Can’t fire someone over dress sense’
As a manager with an IT firm, 28-year-old Vishal Pipriya recalls the time a particular issue began cropping up at his workplace – female employees wearing low waist jeans. While the dress code allowed jeans at the office as long as they were not torn or dirty, ‘maintaining decorum at the workplace’
was the official rule cited for taking action.

While Vishal saw to it that the erring employees were given a talking to by a female manager, he believes the Citibank incident is different. He says, “It isn’t very clear what exactly male superiors found distracting about her.” Vishal clarifies, “Inappropriate clothing at the workplace is a rule applicable to all employees, whether male or female. But, if you are singling out a female or male for her body type or for just being plain attractive then that is discrimination.”

Twenty-seven-year-old Brenden Saldanha, a manager at a professional services firm, feels there is more to the story than meets the eye. He says, “There must have been other reasons for her to be fired, this just seems like a cover  and a poor one at that. What has been stated is an issue that can be addressed and sorted by two consenting parties. You can’t single it out as a reason to fire someone.” In Brenden’s experience, incidents of inappropriate dressing in employees usually come up during their first week at work. As he sees it, “After a week, they get a sense of how people dress and work and basically fall in line.”
Puneet Lulla, 24, recently joined an advertising firm where rules about appropriate dressing are uncommon, but attractive women are not. Having earlier held a job at a corporate bank, he offers with a grin, “A provocatively dressed woman in a bank would be a distraction only because short clothes are rare and so the threshold is lower.” On a more serious note, he adds, “As long as the female employee is not defying any official rule, it is unacceptable that she be pulled up for it. If a man is being affected by how a woman is dressed at work, it’s up to him to deal with it.”

Lovell Prabhu, Personality groomer
There has to be a line drawn in terms of dress code while working in the corporate world. There is no crime in dressing up smartly as long as there is no exposure; you can’t go around flaunting your cleavage in a corporate setup. There is a difference between  vulgar and stylish dressing. And, because you dress up attractively does not give authorities the right to sack you. Nobody is stopping others from dressing up smartly. In this day and age, presentation is important. The way you dress up says a lot about your personality. If your male colleagues have a problem with that, then you are definitely working with bunch of weak men. Even men need to follow a dress code. We must remember that every individual has a different physique. What may look good on one may not look good on the other. So, you cannot blame the garment or the individual. He/she might have worked hard to look a particular way and she/he is not required to explain why. The whole company is judged by the way they dress.

Rukshana Eisa, Social etiquette and grooming expert
I  think it’s not fair to sack a woman because she is dressed ‘provocatively’. But, it’s also vital to understand that corporate dressing is that you are selling a product and not yourself. Hence, there has to be a line drawn in the way one dresses to work. One can’t afford to be sexy, but one can definitely be smart-sexy. Women working in the corporate sector need to stay away from figure hugging fabrics like lycra and jersey. They should stick to knee-length skirts made out of suit fabric so that bottoms are not accentuated. Showing cleavage is a big no. If somebody has a good figure they can enhance their assets with what they are wearing but it should not involve any show of flesh. Even men are not allowed to leave their shirts unbuttoned right down to their chest or naval, they can’t wear fitted trousers and are required to wear full-sleeve shirts. Loud jewellery is also not considered decent at the workplace. Corporates have rules about dress code and employees should respect it.