The corporate backlash against natural hair strikes again--this time across the pond. A Black woman seeking a job at the world-famous and high-end Harrods department store in London was told she had to “chemically straighten her hair to get job.”
The incident was even brought up in Parliament. “Black women are under pressure to remove braids or to use chemical relaxers on their hair to make it look ‘professional’, a Parliamentary committee has heard, as MPs on Wednesday urged the Government to clamp down on sexist workplace dress codes,” reported <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/sexist-workplace-dresscodes-high-heels-row-women-dye-hair-blonde-revealing-outfits-female-employees-a7544736.html" target="_blank"><em>The Independent</em></a>.
Two parliamentary committees, for Petitions and for Women and Equalities, also issued a reported that claims that women are expected to wear high heels, make-up and revealing clothes by some employers. The report, was issued after Nicola Thorp, a receptionist at PricewaterhouseCoopers, was made to go home for not wearing high heels and, further, received no compensation. Thorp created a petition in 2016 that was signed by more than 150,000 and prompted an inquiry by the Women and Equalities Committee into how women are treated in the workplace.
It was during Thorp’s presentations to the Petitions and Women and Equalities Committees that the incident about the Black job seeker’s hair came up. Thorp said: “I have worked in retail before, notably at Harrods. They are really quite bad and I ended up leaving as a result of that. In fact, in one of the interview sessions that I attended, the woman who held the interview—who was working for the agency, so Harrods might have diminished responsibility—would go around the room and say, 'You need a makeover, you need a makeover, you’re fine, you need a makeover'. She pointed to a Black girl who was being interviewed and said, ‘You can’t work for me unless you have your hair chemically relaxed, because your hair, as is, is not professional enough.’ We just sat there and nodded and agreed because we needed the job. People did what they were told."
Harrods has not responded to the report or request from <em>The Independent</em>.
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