Employment and Weight Discrimination
Friday, May 15th, 2009Did you know that many interviewers look at more than just a person’s resume and application information before making a decision about whether or not to hire them? It’s true: many interviewers, whether they are aware of it or not, also judge candidates by their body size.
This is an incredibly unfortunate bias that exists more strongly among women than it does among men. Studies have shown that women who are interviewing people for positions often are harder on a prospective female candidate because of weight issues than she is on a thinner woman. Unfortunately, there is not much to be done about this problem because most of the studies have shown that these people do not even know they are biased against the heavier candidates. It is surprising for many people to learn that the weight biases were not as strong among male interviewers as was initially though by the organization conducting the studies.