The moment I wake up, before I put on my make-up...

... I say a little prayer that Monday morning will not swallow me whole. I run for the bus, and once on board complete a rigorous mental ‘how many f*cks do I give today’ evaluation. I groggily take in my surroundings and see half-awake fellow public transport heroes, reading, gripping coffee for dear life, and applying make-up. I see the woman, make-up bag sprawled on the adjacent seat, mirror in one hand, eyeliner in the other, and pray to the cosmetic gods to give me the strength to paint my face. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t. As it turns out, if I want to get ahead in the workplace I should be applying make-up every single day. In a new scientific paper, entitled Gender and the Returns to Attractiveness, researchers found that women who were well-groomed in the workplace earn significantly more money than their less-preened peers. Sociologists Jacyln Wong and Andrew Penner collected data from over 14,000 candidates in the hope of examining the link between attractiveness and income. They drew on older studies which already showed that conventionally attractive people earn 20 percent more than their less conventionally attractive work colleagues. This was consistent for both men and women. The researchers found that the perceived attractiveness of women was entirely based on how well-groomed she was - blow-dry, tan, pedicured nails, you know the drill. And while it did not matter how groomed the males were (they are judged on their ability, you know), the women who may not be most attractive but know how to put themselves together every morning were more successful than the ones who refused to meet expected societal standards. Fantastic. Another day, another study proving that we live in a plastic, image-driven society that still ranks women based on physical attributes. And some people question why we still need feminism in this day and age.