While reading The Cost of Being a Girl I remembered back to early in my marriage with my wife working at a local women’s clothing store, and how little she was able to bring home. No she wasn’t paid particularly well, but that’s not the reason she didn’t bring home much money. The biggest reason she didn’t bring home much money was that they changed their clothing line every few months and employees were expected to show up in the current season of clothing after paying for it with their own money.
Yasmine Bensen-Cassino recounts this happening for female employees in many jobs. They’re supposed to embody the brand, so if you work at a sports store you better be lean and muscular, while also being feminine. This is in contrast to the men which have a much larger allowable range of look, and they don’t all have to embody the “ideal” of manliness. They merely have to be competent at their job.
We as so much of women, and it’s going to take a societal change to reduce the burden that is foisted on them.