In Depressing Workplace News, Women Are Judged for Their Weight No Matter How Healthy They Are

Apparently, women can’t gain a few pounds without negatively impacting their ability to get a job. (Photo: Getty Images)

Women really can’t win in the workplace. Not only are they likely to receive a lower salary than men, women are more harshly judged for their weight than men in the hiring process.

OK, we’ve all heard about the Abercrombie & Fitch scandal — we know they only hire hot people. But a new study published in Public Library of Science journal found that even the slightest weight gain negatively affects perceived hirability.

The researchers showed participants — half men, half women, all around the age of 25 — photos of male and female faces (also around the same age and with similar facial features to avoid other judgment discrepancies), and they were asked to rate how likely they were to hire each person for a job. Each face had two versions: slimmer and heavier. Still, each photo depicted a person within a healthy BMI range — the weight difference was extremely subtle — and the participants were told that each person was equally qualified for the position.

Even so, the researchers found that those with slightly heavier faces were seen as less hirable for jobs that require customer interaction and even jobs that don’t. Both men and women face these judgments, but the difference in hirability was greater for women, proving that we are judged more harshly than men on our appearance. The study went so far as to conclude, “Women within the normal BMI range appear to suffer greater weight-based bias than men who are overtly overweight.” Great.

The bottom line: A subtle increase in weight, even within a healthy range, is a very real stigma that negatively impacts a woman’s ability to find work and make a living.

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