Welcome to the third and final installment of the “dirty-girl effect” series. Two weeks ago, I introduced the idea of the dirty-girl effect. In short, I defined it as a process of “dirtying” that women experience in their private and public lives…

Through conducting dozens of interviews (formal and casual) with high-powered women, reading countless articles and books and reflecting on my own experiences, I learned a lot. And those lessons can be summed up as what I call the “dirty-girl effect.”