Recruit Me With a Manicure

In early October consultants at McKinsey invited potential female employees—and only females—from Stanford’s business school to a recruitment event at a nail salon. They thought it’d be fun. “We often organize informal events, including golf, bowling, and wine tasting,” a spokeswoman says. “Many of the events are open to men and women, but some are for women only and have proved popular.”

They’ve also proved popular among Internet grousers, who pounced on the firm for pushing a supposedly outdated stereotype. “If consultancies are offering recruits pedicures, it can’t be long before the banks retaliate by offering bikini waxes,” wrote Lucy Kellaway in a Financial Times column that claimed the activities “discriminate against those of us who think manicures are boring.” Same goes for Goldman Sachs, which handed out nail files and vanity mirrors to Harvard women last February. And boo on the consulting firm Bain, which planned all-ladies cooking classes for business students. (Stanford, for its part, pleaded ignorance of Nailgate. “This was an off-campus event, and my career-management colleagues were not aware of it,” says university spokeswoman Helen Chang.)