With Promotion, Men become Fatter and Women Slimmer

Women who do well in their career are slimmer, says study. According to the data released by National Obesity Observatory (NOO), UK, women at the highest ladder of their profession in the fields of medicine, law and business have slimmed down in the last 15 years. Moreover, they are the only recognised social group who have lost weight while people belonging to other groups have put on weight.

The data from NOO shows that the 15 per cent professional women were observed to be obese in the year 1997, but this had dropped to 14 per cent by the year 2008. What was particularly noticeable and glaring was the variation in percentage of professional men who were classified as overweight or obese. In the same period, i.e. between 1997 and 2008, this percentage rose from 15 to 20.

Experts such as Andrew Hill, professor of medical psychology at Leeds University have pointed out that women are still judged more by their appearance than the level of skills that they have for their job. There is a strong bias against overweight women compared to the same attribute of men. Overweight male lawyers would not be unacceptable because of their appearance, but the same is true for women lawyers.