The key to business success, ladies: get a pants suit and a deeper voice
Last week a memo that was sent to employees of a major international law firm caused a bit of a stir when it did the rounds on social media. The controversial missive was aimed at helping male lawyers in the firm give better presentations and included many helpful tips such as encouraging them to be more sensitive and approachable and a little less self assured, particularly when they didn't know what they were talking about. The men were also advised to raise the pitch of their voices so that they would not sound so out of place among their female colleagues and, if possible, to take up wearing skirts instead of trousers for the same reason.
I jest, of course. The idea that men would be encouraged to explore their feminine side in the workplace is still mostly a laughable one. Women, on the other hand, are routinely being told that if we want to get ahead, we just need to start acting more like men.
Consider this recent example of female professionals being issued instructions on how to dress (cleavage is a no-no), how to alter our naturally higher pitched voices so as not to sound shrill ("think Lauren Bacall not Marilyn Monroe"
and to avoid "giggling" and "squirming" and other vices that females are apparently prone to. The sad thing is that as obnoxious as these "helpful tips" are, as long as the language of the workplace is predominately male, women who want to be contenders seem to have little choice but to play along.
The memo I alluded to in the first paragraph was actually titled "presentation tips for women" and was sent out only to the female employees of global law firm Clifford Chance. You can read the full thing here, but suffice to say that it focuses heavily on the shrill nature of the female voice and what to do about it; on how we'd be better off if we dressed more uniformly (or just more like men) and how we really need to stop waving our hands about so much and waffling. It seems we also have a tendency to hum and haw, to be incapable of making a decision, to doubt ourselves, to be too apologetic, too accommodating and sometimes just too damned nice. (Seriously, after reading it you'll wonder how any woman ever managed to hold down a job.) The most depressing thing about the memo, however, was that it was written by a female partner in the firm and derived from her years of personal experience in a male dominated workplace.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/07/business-women-act-like-men
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Height is harder to change than clothing. 
