The Wrong Handbag

Someone very close to me applied for a job at an extremely well-known company recently.

Having managed to convince her interviewers that she had all the necessary technical competence, languages and experience to do the job perfectly, she was finally turned down because she had the wrong sort of handbag.

Admittedly she was interviewed by females mainly, and handbags are no doubt an important consideration to young women. But since when has not having a particular sort of bag disqualified one from doing a job?

Not that she was dressed like a tramp, or bag-lady (pun intended). She is, on the contrary, a very elegant individual. She did have a receptacle designed to be convenient for use on the London public transport network, which was more practical than stylish. A faux-pas in hindsight.

Image is now everything, it would seem, and women have a long way to go to free themselves from their enthralment to the (mostly male) diktats of fashion.