As part of our Work and Power Survey with Elle magazine, we asked you for your stories and observations about how gender matters in today's workplace. Here's a sampling.

It doesn't help I agree with this article however I want to add one caveat and that is when you are an attractive woman working in corporate America the unfortunate thing is that everyone else in the office environment assumes you do well because of your looks so sometimes it can be a hindrance. I am a somewhat attractive woman and have done very well in sales working at formerly known as WorldCom, now it's Verizon business for over 12 years. I have always done very well because I work hard and not because I’m just good looking. No one gave me deals. I went out and earned them, sold them. So, sometimes it's very frustrating being an attractive woman in corporate America because people think you have done well strictly because business is given to you because you're good looking. But on behalf of some of the good-looking women who work hard I say that's not true. You can be good looking and successful based on your own hard work, not on your looks! --Anonymous , Phoenix, AZ (submitted on March 7, 2007)

You better know something You can get by on good looks for about 10 minutes. After that you had better know something. --Spencer Dillard, Cartersville, GA (submitted on March 7, 2007)

Not getting better Things are not getting better. I work or a private bank which is a partnership. We have around 31 partners and only one is a woman. We have managing directors, senior VPs, etc., but basically the same percentage makes it to the upper ranks. Promotions are based on the "old boy club" and a relatively green and inexperienced male will be promoted to a VP level within five years but a woman who has three times the experience must wait her turn. We wind up reporting to someone less knowledgeable than we are and teaching them their jobs. --Anonymous , Boston, MA (submitted on March 6, 2007)

Height matters In my experience, I have definitely found a gender-based disparity in how people of various attractiveness are treated. I have consistently found that females are quite harsh and blatant in how they treat males in the workplace, based on the one, unacknowledged male attractiveness variable: height. Females love tall males, though only the most grotesquely honest will crow about it, or even admit it. Other guys are even more animalistic about it, although they will tend to show a bit more understanding. I have repeatedly found in the workplace that, when I suggest an idea or try to take a stand on something, it's quickly shot down in favor of ideas — many of them gutless and half-baked — from big boys in pretty clothes. When I try to point this out to almost anyone, I receive such a contemptuous, sneering dismissal, I almost never voice even my most subdued outrage. Over the years, I've learned to exert influence by proxy, just like Hillary Clinton, Dick Cheney, or Ayman al-Zawahiri. I connect up with some tall, ham-headed calendar boy, and have him introduce what are basically my ideas to the group. I find they are very often much more well-received than anything that might ever come out of my own mouth. --Ron Gonzalez, Seattle, WA (submitted on March 7, 2007)

Disgusting society Our society disgusts me. I am above-average looking, a 29 year old woman working in a business setting. Two years a go I received my MBA from a private University and began my adventure into the business world. I was told by a Doctor/business owner I should have no problem finding a job, being a tall, slender, pretty girl. I was insulted. What do my looks have to do with me finding a job? I soon realized he was right. If you are pretty, people expect more from you. You are supposed to dress to impress all the time, always look put together, and always use your looks as a stepping stone to attain or retain business clients. From my perspective, it's too much pressure and the flirting and harmless looks feel degrading. As an educated woman I would like to be treated with RESPECT and integrity, not because of how great I look in a skirt, but because I'm knowledgeable. It's hard to find that balance in the business world. My looks help me to a degree, however, I will not have them forever, and I would rather people talk to me because of my intelligence verses my looks. --Elizabeth Graham, St. Louis, MO (submitted on March 7, 2007)

Women's worst enemies I've worked in the IT field for more than 20 years now, and most of the time, my gender is not an issue. Interestingly enough, when it is an issue, it's with other women — usually older women (senior citizens) — and rarely with men. I've even had the head of the local feminist group decline to have me work on her computer because she didn't think a woman could possibly have the skills to replace a CD-ROM drive. A fellow student once said in one of my college history classes many years ago that "we (women) are our own worst enemies." I didn't believe her then, but now I realize she was absolutely right. Men are not holding us back — we women are. --Anonymous , Seattle, WA (submitted on March 6, 2007)

Long way to go I would say I am a pretty attractive woman but I am also intelligent. I do however admit that I believe that my looks has given me opportunities that I normally wouldn't have gotten. Unfortunately, when you are successful, your less attractive peers always put the label of "slut" after a womans name. But never for a successful man. It's just not fair. I'm not naive, I know that women still have a long ways to go to be taken seriously without these kind of comments even in this day and age when a woman is permitted to run for president. --Lupe Jorge, Simi Valley, CA (submitted on March 7, 2007)

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