An Unsuitable Job for a Woman is a 1982 British psychological thriller film directed by Chris Petit and starring Billie Whitelaw, Paul Freeman, and Pippa Guard.

[2] After her former boss, private detective Bernie Pryde, dies and leaves her his agency, Cordelia Gray is hired to investigate the suicide of Mark Callendar, a promising university student from a powerful family who abruptly abandoned his studies, moved to a remote cottage, and took employment as a gardener and handyman before hanging himself.

Cordelia then travels to the nearby Callendar family's country house, where she is left in the company of Elizabeth, who shows her home movies of Mark.

Cordelia learns from the coroner that traces of purple lipstick were found on Mark's mouth, leading them to believe a woman kissed him prior to his death.

Upon further questioning, Isobel recounts to Cordelia how she in fact discovered Mark's body in the cottage the night he died, and that he was wearing women's underwear and had purple lipstick smeared across his mouth.

A perplexed Cordelia returns to the cottage and attempts to recreate Mark's suicide using crime scene photographs and the belt he fashioned as a noose.

[4] In a review in The New York Times, Janet Maslin wrote "As befits an English country house mystery, the film has enough wood paneling, wildflowers and overall gentility to appeal to the genre's most ardent fans.

"[5] A review in Variety summarized; "Perhaps it is unfair to unravel this tale which is handled from a distance by director Christopher Petit robbing it of a more forceful narration, timing and revelation.