Global News BC anchors conducted an experiment to see what would happen if they wore the same outfits every day for a week.
The experiment went one step further in an attempt to see if there would be any gender bias behind viewers’ response.
During the first week, morning anchor Jason Pires and evening anchor Chris Gailus wore the same suits. The following week, Sophie Lui along with Sonia Sunger, Katelin Owsianski and Kristi Gordon wore the same outfit.
The results? According to a post from Global BC, “While no one sent in messages about the men, the women received a flood of emails from viewers.”
Kendra Strauss, a geographer and feminist political economist at Simon Fraser University, told Global BC the results of the clothing experiment were not surprising.
“I think we know all of the ways generally that women are judged on appearance in ways that are different and that are more extreme than men,” she said.
Strauss said the experiment also brought up the issue of how expensive it is for women, when it comes to maintaining a professional work wardrobe.
“The requirement to look a particular way to be taken seriously at work has costs both in terms of one’s ability to impress in one’s job but it’s a huge financial pressure as well.”
Strauss said everyone is socialized to believe women should look a certain way to be taken seriously.
“That needs to be changed as well,” she said. “In a sense, it’s a societal issue, not just about women and men. It’s really about gender norms.”