The Wall Street Journal-20080131-He-ll Never Get a Job At Hillary-s White House

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He'll Never Get a Job At Hillary's White House

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As a Harvard graduate with experience in public finance, I was dismayed to read the "On Style" column "Rejected: Readers Reveal Interview Don'ts" (Personal Journal, Jan. 17). The financial executive's opinion on women wearing pantsuits to the office was unenlightened, to say the least, and felt like a throwback to the 1960s to me.

When I was the deputy budget director of one of the nation's largest cities, I not only wore pantsuits every day, but also wore them to all of my initial job interviews. I discovered early on in my career that pants are more comfortable than skirts and my brain works better when I'm not being squeezed to death by a pair of pantyhose, dealing with constant pantyhose snags and my feet aren't throbbing from running to meetings all day in high heels (these problems may explain why these fashions never took off with men).

Any employee, as long as he or she is dressed appropriately, will perform better if physically comfortable. In addition, if women don't feel like showing their legs to their colleagues, why should they? Research has shown, and my own personal experience has supported, that men are often more visually oriented than women; I honestly don't believe that it benefits workplace productivity to distract male colleagues with any more visual stimulation than necessary for the simple reason that it is more important for workers to focus on ideas rather than on legs (or other body parts, for that matter).

Hallie Saxena

Philadelphia