Why can’t American female executives appear attractive?

The latest in the daily amusement which is the saga of mismanagement by the Hewlett Packard Board of Directors is the release of her biography by ex-CEO Carly Fiorina. Seldom did a CEO so deserve to be fired as Ms. Fiorina, having destroyed HP’s culture and promoted the acquisition of failing Compaq Computer, a deal that ranks just behing the AOL-TimeWarner fiasco as one of the worst business combinations of all times.

So no love lost there, and at least HP lucked out (it cannot have been anything but luck, given their track record) and got a good CEO to rebuild shareholder wealth.

What is intriguing about Fiorina’s book is the cover picture. Nothwithstanding her lack of management and business skills, she is, even to her harshest critics – an attractive woman. Yet she chooses a cover picture which is, in a word, ugly.

The hair masculine, the gaze unyielding, the lips pursed, the face haggard, it’s a poor attempt at female business macho.

I asked a friend why anyone would use so ugly a photograph, given the power images have in our society, to promote their book. She made all clear to me.

“You see”, she replied, “In America to compete in the business world, you have to be one of the guys. In France, women naturally use their femininity to rise through the system. As for the looks and clothes sense of the English businesswoman, move on”.

Just when gender equality raises its head in the US boardroom, photography proclaims that its name is Ugly.

How sad.