Erotic Capital: The Power of Attraction in the Boardroom and the Bedroom

In this bold and controversial book, Hakim explores the applications and significance of erotic capital, challenging the disapproval meted out to women and men who use sex appeal to get ahead in life. Social scientists have paid little serious attention to these modes of personal empowerment, despite overwhelming evidence of their importance. In Erotic Capital, Hakim marshals a trove of research to show that rather than degrading those who employ it, erotic capital represents a powerful and potentially equalizing tool—one that we scorn only to our own detriment.

Publishers Weekly

“This enthusiastic book…succeeds in marrying economics with eros.”

“This enthusiastic book…succeeds in marrying economics with eros.”

Financial Times (London)

“Poets and novelists have always sensed that sexual attractiveness is a kind of capital…. But few sociologists have studied erotic capital outside the marriage market…. Hakims concept of erotic capital…offers insight into an age that has, as Philip Larkin once put it, ‘burst into fulfillments desolate attic.”

The Observer (London)

“An extremely important new socio-economic concept….Hakims real argument is that in modern consumer societies the ways we define success (and hence the ingredients needed to achieve it) are becoming more fluid. Intelligence may still be one path do doing well…but theres been an explosion of other routes….In marketing, public relations, television, even the law and banking, being physically attractive is the way to get ahead.”

The National Review Online

“Hakim provides a valuable framework for understanding the phenomenon [of erotic capital]. The attractiveness gap in earnings… suggest[s] that investment in erotic capital is a particularly shrewd strategy for those who suffer from deficits in economic, cultural, social, and human capital… Hakims concept of erotic capital is a useful reminder that inequality is a multidimensional phenomenon.”

The Australian (Sydney)

“Rarely do social theorists cause a public furor outside their ivory towers—except for Catherine Hakim.”

Economist

“This is controversial stuff.”

Telegraph (London)

“Hakim is absolutely right; more than that – her book should be read out to young girls as part of the national curriculum. Because it states something important that mothers have been frightened to tell daughters for fear of undermining their intelligence: that you can be a feminist, you can be strong and independent and clever, and you can wear a nice frock and high heels while you do this.”

Harvard Business Review

“Force[s] us to confront a reality that American human resources departments…would like to ignore.”