Employment Clothing Practices and Attitudes of White-Collar Female Workers

Abstract

The business clothing practices and attitude toward clothing of 313 white-collar female workers in a large state organization were investigated. The purposes of the present study were to investigate whether (1) there were significant differences in types of clothing chosen for work by managerial and nonmanagerial women, (2) there were correlations among types of clothing chosen and the attitudes toward employment clothing, career commitment, and apparel evaluative criteria, and (3) the factors contributed to the prediction of type of clothing chosen and clothing expenditures. Analysis yielded significant differences in the types of clothing chosen for work by those two groups and significant correlations between those types of clothing and clothing attitudes, and the apparel evaluative criteria. The multiple regression results indicated that the attitudes about clothing, price, career commitment, perceived new clothing needs, and age contributed to the prediction of employment clothing practices and expenditures.