Friday, April 10, 2009
Breakthrough of the century: women are penalized for being overweight
3 comments
Wow, really? Women are more harshly scrutinized for being overweight than men are? Since when?!
So... am I supposed to be surprised?
The study, published in the British journal Equal Opportunities International, focused on the bosses of 1,000 leading companies in the United States.
Photographs of these individuals were assessed by experts, including medical professionals who were able to accurately estimate people's weight.
...Up to 61 per cent of the leading male bosses were overweight – higher than the US average of 41 per cent in this age group – indicating that overweight men were over-represented in high positions in the business world.
In contrast, only 22 per cent of women chief executives were overweight, compared with the US average of 29 per cent in this female age group.
Researcher Mark Roehling, an associate professor of human resource management at Michigan State University, said that the attitudes appeared to contribute to the glass ceiling.
"The results suggest that while being obese limits the career opportunities of both women and men, being 'merely overweight' harms only female executives – and may actually benefit male executives."
The results echo previous research showing that among white, middle-class communities, women faced "harsher weight standards" than men, Prof Roehling said.
So... am I supposed to be surprised?
Posts
April 11, 2009 at 11:36 AM
at least people are still doing the research and proving the point again and again, so that maybe, the others who are a bit slow, can finally realize the impossible standards all women are faced with today and actually realize that this world is far from equal and something needs to be done.
when it comes to convincing the obviously culturally blind, there can never be too much proof..
April 11, 2009 at 11:40 AM
Quite true!
April 12, 2009 at 6:15 PM
Ehhh, Science.
Sometimes you get boring results. In fact, usually you get boring results. You come up with a proposition, like 'I think women who are overweight don't get promoted as much as men' and so you cast about for ways of testing this, and ways of falsifying those tests, and eventually you get...
...Told that your original idea was right, though boringly.