Here is some interesting research on gender and politics.
Our findings underscore the impact of gender and physical appearance on shaping voter decision-making and provide novel insight into the psychological foundations underlying the political gender gap.
Male voters did not perceive a significant difference in how dominant male and female candidates appeared to be, whereas for female voters, male political candidates were perceived as significantly more dominant compared to female political candidates, t (34) = 5.03, p<0.0001.
People were significantly more likely to vote for more competent looking male candidates [r (60) = 0.59, p<0.003], and female candidates [r (46) = 0.76, p<0.01]. Intriguingly though, male candidates were also more likely to win votes if they appeared approachable [r (60) = 0.55, p<0.009], while female candidates were more likely to win votes if they were more attractive [r (46) = 0.75, p<0.001].
By the way, the research subjects were college students, the group of subjects most easily available to the researchers. In order to be totally reliable, the research would have to be replicated in a further study using a much wider cross section of research subjects.
Never the less, I think this study provides some scientific basis for why it is that women become the pre-eminent target of the beauty industry. If it is true that "female candidates were more likely to win votes if they were more attractive" one would conclude that "female attractiveness" would be a valuable characteristic in many other sorts of endeavors. And if it happens to be true that more attractive women tend to be more successful, then I would think that women would be intuitively aware of that fact. And, as a corollary, any woman who wants to be more successful would spend a reasonable amount of effort and resources seeking to maximize her attractiveness as a way of enhancing her competitive positioning in a broad range of activities.
By the way, I make no value judgement concerning this situation. I neither endorse this reality nor consider it immutable. But I also see not point in turning away from realities just because we might find to them to be disconcerting.
