The jury is out over whether blondes have more fun, but new research has found that fair haired women do have more power.

The study which was presented earlier in the month at the Academy of Management Meeting in the US, discovered that blonde women hold an inordinate amount of power positions in work environments. The figures don’t lie- 48 percent of female chief executives at Standard and Poor ranked top 500 companies are blonde while 35 percent of female senators are blonde according to findings presented by the two business school researchers. Apparently, it is no coincidence that these women have opted for a brighter barnet. As the huffington post explains,

“The prevalence of blonde female CEOs doesn’t contradict the stereotype of the dumb blonde-it plays into it… in addition to incompetence, light-coloured hair is also associated with youth, attractiveness, dependence and warmth. All these traits counter-balance the more aggressive, dominant-and stereo typically male characteristics required to run a large organisation.”

These researchers conducted three studies on 100 male participants to see how they felt about women CEOs who were either blonde or brunette. The men confirmed commonly held stereotypes and said that while they did not see a discernible difference in the attractiveness of the women, they did feel that the blonde women were ‘less competent and independent’. For the second study, the men were asked to choose between a brunette and a blonde for the position of a CEO or a Senate position and the majority of the group voted for the brunette because she is “intelligent, professional and serious.” The most interesting findings were made apparent in the third and final study, where the men were asked to rate female leaders who displayed a dominant leadership style, this is, according to the researchers where the ‘blonde paradox’ lies. They read a quote from a CEO that said “I don’t want there to be any ambiguity about who’s in charge” and “My staff knows who the boss is.” Surprisingly, when this came from the mouth of the brunette, she was rated poorly on warmth and attractiveness, while the blonde women did much better.