It Was Appropriate

She always dresses like a man. It was a comment I read about Kamala Harris’ attire for the inauguration. She wore a black overcoat, a black pantsuit with a coffee brown top. There was nothing over the top, sexy, or attention grabbing about it. It served its purpose. This wasn’t her day to shine, but to transfer power. But I thought, how many times have I heard that comment when people referred to women in powerful positions, “They look or they are dressed like men.” I worked in the male dominated industry of construction for 15+ years. Not only to survive, but to thrive it was a conscious effort to downplay much of my femininity. In male dominated spaces, no one is going to take a woman seriously if she walks into a room with dainty colored body conscious clothing. Google Indra Nooyi the former CEO of Pepsi, Mary Barra CEO of General Motors, or Maggie Timoney CEO of Heineken, you’ll see for the roles they are or were in the dressed rather demure.