Law: A Hard Nose and a Short Skirt

Two cases raise questions about a woman's on-the-job style

In My Fair Lady, Henry Higgins put the question in a bouncing lyric: "Why can't a woman . . . ((ta-ta-ta-dum)) . . . be more like a man?" Last week the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in a major sex-discrimination case, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, that touches on some further questions that Professor Higgins never got to. Can a woman be too much like a man, at least in the eyes of some male colleagues? And if her career suffers because she strikes them as gruff and hard-nosed, is she being penalized for qualities that might be treated as assets...

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