Why Labour should take Gok Wan more seriously

Hear me out. At the weekend I bought some new shirts, but suffer from the problem that my neck is too large for my body. Or at least, the way the shirts are cut means that by getting a shirt with the right collar size, I end up with shirts that make me look like I’m about to set sail. Even opting for ‘slim’ or ‘tailored’ fit doesn’t completely address the issue, and it costs me more.

In this sense, I am victim of poor fortune – being born with a large neck means I have to pay more than others to look as good in shirts. If only shirt manufacturers didn’t seem to assume that men with big necks are also fat!

This got me thinking. Perhaps Labour needs to take the philosophy of Gok Wan a bit more seriously?

In Gok’s Fashion Fix, Gok demonstrates that it is possible to look like you’re wearing designer fashion but on a high street budget. In essence Gok is a fashion egalitarian who thinks your budget shouldn’t affect your ability to look good.

There are at least two reasons why Labour should take that sentiment more seriously.

Firstly, academic research suggests a link between career prospects and appearance* (for example, here or here). So wealth is partly a function of how you look. If people with bad luck have to invest more to look at least the same as people with good luck, then this might compound income inequality**. If Labour is serious about tackling the causes of income inequality, then it might develop policies to ensure looking good is more affordable. Fashion advisers to those on unemployment benefits, for example? Or propose legislating to prohibit discrimination on sartorial grounds?

Secondly, if there is a link between career prospects and appearance, then maybe there is an argument to focus more on how Labour politicians, prospective politicians and party workers dress? Investment in the personal appearance of ‘Party people’ (for want of a better phrase) may yield electoral benefits. I’ll leave it as an open question as to how much investment might be needed…

So there could be two tangible benefits if Labour took Gok Wan more seriously: it may help reverse income inequality resulting from bad luck (odd body shapes etc) and deliver better electoral outcomes.

Alex Baker is Secretary of the Young Fabians.

*Although note that sometimes changing your appearance can have negative impacts too.

**In the narrow sense of my shirt example this might not strictly hold – fat people, even if shirts fit them better, may experience slower career progression than those who are slimmer (other things equal).

Women still earn 20% less than men

An OECD study, published today to mark International Women’s Day, reveals that, globally, women are paid almost a fifth less than men, with the gender pay gap varying greatly, from a 30 per cent gap in Japan and Korea to a a 10 per cent gap in Belgium and New Zealand; in Britain, the figure is closer to the 20 per cent average.

Today’s OECD report also reveals 62 per cent of women in paid work, with a quarter of all women working part time compared to just 6 per cent for men. Women spend more time doing unpaid work and “spend at least twice as much time on caring than men”, adds the report, with the number of children in a household one of the biggest determining factors.

Another point of note was that public spending on childcare and pre-school services in OECD countries was on average only 0.6% of GDP, the amounts again varying sharply, from 0.1% in Greece to 1.3% in Denmark, with Britain once more in line with the average.

Earlier today, the prime minister described the absence of women from the boards of some of Britain’s top companies as “completely unacceptable”, saying it was “wrong” that only a tenth of directors in the UK’s top 100 companies are women.

His remarks come in the wake of recent evidence from the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) showing the movement of women into positions of power and influence had reversed or stalled, reports today’s Guardian:

“It [the EHRC] likened women’s progress to a snail’s pace and said it would take a snail 73 years to crawl from Land’s End to John O’Groats and halfway back again before the numbers of women becoming directors of FTSE 100 companies was the same as men.

“The snail would have to cross the length of the Great Wall of China in 212 years before women would be equally represented in parliament.”

This article was originally published on Left Foot Forward