Reflections on Mary Kay
| By FEM - Feb 24th, 2006 at 5:40 pm EST |
Recently I was berated for being a feminist. The problem was, my friend just really wanted to be a Mary Kay consultant. Now before any conclusions are drawn from this scenario, let me first say that I think Mary Kay does GREAT things for women. It is the ideal opportunity for women stuck at home with no other identity than "my son's mom" and "my husband's wife." Women can now add "my own boss" and "saleswoman" to the list, thanks to Mary Kay. But when my 20 year old brilliant friend with a bright future admitted to seriously considering the sales pitch to join the Mary Kay team, I kind of freaked. Bright young women can set their goals higher than Mary Kay.
Of all the billionaires in the world, 3% are women, and of those 3%, 70% work for Mary Kay. If you're good at sales and you love make up, Mary Kay will be good to you. My own Mary Kay consultant quit her job as a financial consultant to be a stay-at-home mom / Mary Kay entrepreneur, and she seems to just love her life.
The problem I have with Mary Kay is in part that it pushes female stereotypes. When I was being "recruited", I was told that Mary Kay is great because "women just wanna look good" and "let's face it, women are impulsive". Yes, looking good feels great and so does (unfortunately) impulsivity, but the company of Mary Kay profits off of these stereotypes. I understand that's how business works, but I can't help noticing that men are far from the target market of people who are "impulsive" and "wanna look good", and believe me, I've known quite a few men who put me to shame when it comes to the morning routine of getting ready.
Personally, I can't get all excited about Mary Kay. It serves as a reminder that women STILL haven't made it equally in the business world, and the closest we've gotten is through selling make up. I recently picked up a women's business magazine that listed all of the companies with high numbers of women. Mary Kay, of course, blew the rest away. The only notable company after that was Hewlett Packard, which is owned by a woman (my printers will be HP from now on).
So in the big picture, let's not forget that women have a long way to go.
Of all the billionaires in the world, 3% are women, and of those 3%, 70% work for Mary Kay. If you're good at sales and you love make up, Mary Kay will be good to you. My own Mary Kay consultant quit her job as a financial consultant to be a stay-at-home mom / Mary Kay entrepreneur, and she seems to just love her life.
The problem I have with Mary Kay is in part that it pushes female stereotypes. When I was being "recruited", I was told that Mary Kay is great because "women just wanna look good" and "let's face it, women are impulsive". Yes, looking good feels great and so does (unfortunately) impulsivity, but the company of Mary Kay profits off of these stereotypes. I understand that's how business works, but I can't help noticing that men are far from the target market of people who are "impulsive" and "wanna look good", and believe me, I've known quite a few men who put me to shame when it comes to the morning routine of getting ready.
Personally, I can't get all excited about Mary Kay. It serves as a reminder that women STILL haven't made it equally in the business world, and the closest we've gotten is through selling make up. I recently picked up a women's business magazine that listed all of the companies with high numbers of women. Mary Kay, of course, blew the rest away. The only notable company after that was Hewlett Packard, which is owned by a woman (my printers will be HP from now on).
So in the big picture, let's not forget that women have a long way to go.
!
Comments are closed for this post.
Wow, way to be a terrible friend. People are not children incapable of making their own decisions just because they decide they'd like something different than you do. I know many bright young women, and they want to do all sorts of different things; some even want to become (gasp) stay-at-home housewives!
None of their choices are 'wrong'.
That's funny. I saw a study recently that in elite professions (i.e. investment banking) unmarried women with no children are 7 times more likely to reach high executive positions than unmarried men with no children.
Your fundamental problem, though, is an inability to accept that other women might find happiness in different areas than you do.
Nobody goes through life using all their potential - in fact, someone who did would probably be desperately unhappy. People look at their potential (both in terms of skills and circumstances) and then look at what makes them happy, and then decide where they'd like to go.
Shockingly, some women may find that they have potential suitors, and they'd rather not work for a living. And so, they become housewives. Are they 'bad'? No, they made the choice that they feel is best for them.
Judging other people's career choices because it's not what you would want for yourself makes you come off as an unpardonable egocentrist.
I didn't see the same study as you. Definitely important news, especially when considering equality in the workplace. How about a link?
Again, the problem I have with Mary Kay was in their recruitment spiel. According to the worlds largest female run company, women "just wanna look good" and "are impulsive". How about presenting motivations for selling make up that don't push stereotypes.
The piece seems to agree with the stereotypes that you seem to condemn, by saying "yes, looking good feels great and so does (unfortunately) impulsivity."
The piece also blatantly denies and ignores the reality of the male beauty business. You say that men seem to be immune from this kind of marketing, but if you've ever picked up a men's magazine or flipped on the TV and seen an ad for AXE or whatever the latest in 15 year old boys' preferred sense is, you'd realize that your assertion is totally false.
Oh, and just because I have to sneak in a bit of a complaint, women tend to dress up and do all their makeup and whatnot for each other, not for men. I've known plenty of girls who've gone to all-girls school, and the short skirts and sexing up the school uniform and makeup is just as prevalent. If anything, it's worse, since it tends to be about vicious competition between women for status within social groups.
Men? We dress up and look nice for women, not for each other. I've been to an all-male summer camp; by the first few days with no women, all standards of basic sanitation, decency, and hygiene were completely gone. We could have been handed clubs and sent off to be hunter-gatherers, and it would have been at about our intellectual level. Elaborate fashion routines were the last item on the agenda.
Men have it rougher with regard to the beauty issue, because the demands on us are more external - let's face it, a man can argue all he wants about beauty standards, but if you're not impressing the ladies, you're not getting laid.
Women? Women tend to have a much easier time finding a guy who will still like them if they don't work out on their appearance as much. Their image issues are mainly between them and other women, which would (I imagine) be easier to overcome than if their main goal was to impress men.