Bald man or woman with wet hair – who would get the job?

Being female, I am unlikely to reach the same state of hairlessness as Stuart Heritage, but I do agree with him that “bald men are everywhere” (Losing my hair made me miserable. Now I’m as bald as an egg, I couldn’t be happier, 16 April). I turned up at an online meeting recently feeling self-conscious that my hair was still wet from my shower. But then my own audit showed that there were more bald men present than men with hair, so many of them wouldn’t have the problem at all. And I was the only woman. So my initial concern that everyone would know how late I had got up quickly updated to a worry that they would think it was grease.

Incidentally, similar research into job applications has compared likelihoods of success between otherwise identical male and female candidates and – guess what – men are more likely to get the job (although I presume it does depend on the job).

However, I don’t know if anyone has compared the preference between a bald man and a woman with wet hair … an important research question I feel.
Prof Alice Moncaster
University of the West of England

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