CAN

a woman be beautiful . . . and brainy?

It is a question likely to send the feminist movement into paroxysms of outrage. But, like it or not, it seems that an unconscious bias remains when it comes to linking how a woman dresses and looks with her brain power.

This month, researchers found that female graduates who wore ‘sexy’ outfits to their graduation were deemed to be less capable than their counterparts. ‘ The intelligence of females is unfairly linked to how they present themselves,’ said Dr Fabio Fasoli, a lecturer in social psychology at the University of Surrey.

So why can’t people accept that beautiful women might have brains? Here, JILL FOSTER speaks to highly successful, intelligent — and attractive — women who are forever having to prove they’re ‘not just a pretty face’ . . .