Published on October 27 in “The Conversation” section of Glamour.com, Caitlin Moscatello wrote an article detailing the new discrimination that women in today’s society are facing: being overweight effects their paycheck. To continue this “depressing” pattern, Moscatello reveals that a woman who is overweight is not only going to be paid less than what she should be, but also her gender as an overweight female and not male influences the payroll discrepancy. This information comes from a study performed out of Vanderbilt University, headed by Jennifer Shinall. The study finds that women who are overweight are less likely to be hired for a job that requires a lot of “face time” because of their appearance.
The Vanderbilt study found that these overweight women are more likely to have physically demanding jobs in comparison to thinner women. However, if these overweight women are “lucky” enough to land a job a saleswoman or a receptionist, they will earn five percent less because of their weight. Ridiculous, right? This all goes back to how employers do not want to have heavier women as their “face” of their company.
Just this week, a fellow collegiette wrote a refreshing article on how all of us collegiettes should not always be focusing on and obsessing over superficial qualities that society pushes on us. It featured four qualities, having nothing to do with appearance, that I think a lot of young women forget about on a daily basis.
After reading this, in addition to the article from Glamour.com, I was feeling four of my own emotions: anger, surprise, frustration, and sadness. Anger because it is 2014 and women are still being discriminated because of their gender, appearance, and weight. Frustration because women have fought so hard to gain voting rights and equal pay in the work force, and now their weight will give them even lower pay? That doesn’t sound like an “equal opportunity employer” when broken down. I felt surprised because overweight men are not discriminated against in the same way as overweight women. And finally, sadness because no matter how hard we try as a society to say that a woman’s looks don’t matter for everything, this study suggests that women who are not a size zero aren’t capable individuals. In 2014, women should not be facing any more discrimination because of their weight. No matter what your size is, whether it is a zero or plus size, you are beautiful and smart. You bring your own talents to the table and being “society skinny” should not be one of those.
I was so saddened by Glamour.com’s “A Woman’s Weight Can Affect Her Paycheck, Finds Depressing New Study” because according to society I am a thin girl. Yes, I can be discriminated against in the workplace for other reasons, but will I be paid less because of my weight? No, and that is what upsets me. Why should I have more work opportunities than another woman who weighs more than myself? That doesn’t seem in the slightest of ways fair. It is crazy to fathom that in today’s society women are being paid because of how we look. A woman shouldn’t be paid because she is skinny, a woman should be paid for her college degree that she worked extremely hard for, her internship experiences that she had, and her natural talents and skills.
I didn’t expect that this article would have such an impact that it did when I read it. Take a few minutes to reflect on what Caitlin Moscatello wrote about, which is the shallow truth in our society. Just remember ladies, that having confidence is the best thing that you can ever have, not being able to wear size zero jeans.