According to the personal care brand, this 'Real Truth About Beauty' study is the first attempt to both 'deconstruct' and 'reconstruct' women’s perceptions of female beauty and was carried out in 2013, on a sample of 4075 women aged 18-64 years across these three continents.
The study demonstrates that women find it difficult to think of themselves as beautiful. "This can contribute to unhappiness and low self-esteem and self-worth – especially among those women (often younger) who are more likely to take their cues from popular culture."
Dove, which recently presented the findings, stated women were least satisfied with their physical attractiveness, body weight and shape, beauty and financial success, with life satisfaction ratings found to be in the 70-80% range.
“This suggests that satisfaction with appearance is lower than overall satisfaction with life. Indeed, in this study, the only domain women are less satisfied with is their financial success,” say the personal care reps.
Following this, nearly two-thirds of the surveyed women (65%) were reported as being more stressed by the prospect of being photographed or seeing pictures of themselves on the web.
Measuring satisfaction
Younger women in the 18-29 and 30-44 groups were found to be more interested in seeing women of various body weights and shapes, whereas older women are said to more likely have an interest in seeing women of different ages as well as various body weights and shapes.
As a result:, some women have passed on clichés that supposedly capture the best days of their lives.
19% of respondents said they do not have photographs of their best holidays, 17% say they have no material souvenir of the birth of their child, and 14% do not have pictures of their wedding.
Almost two thirds of respondents (63%) even admitted having already destroyed pictures of these occasions.
Overall the survey showed that women globally hold remarkably similar views on beauty (with the exception of Japanese women on some measures).