I was wondering if you all would take my survery, and post your comments on being discrimanted against. I face it almsot everyday in department stores, applying for jobs, even in my school work. I thought this would be an interesting topic.

Evidence of discrimination is found at virtually every stage of the employment cycle, including selection, placement, compensation, promotion, discipline and discharge, according to a research review by Mark Roehling, a professor in the Department of Management, Western Michigan University. In addition, the bias extends to assessments of overweight individuals in their various work-related roles both as subordinates and co-workers. Of his findings, Roehling said, "Overall, the evidence of consistent, significant discrimination against overweight employees is sobering."

Roehling reviewed 29 research studies of employment discrimination that included both laboratory and field studies. He found that:

1. Overweight persons were subject to discrimination in employment decisions based on body weight.
   
   
2. Overweight persons were frequently stereotyped as emotionally impaired, socially handicapped and as possessing negative personality traits.
   
   
3. Wages of mildly obese white women were 5.9 percent lower than standard weight counterparts; morbidly obese white women were 24.1 percent lower, according to two studies. In contrast to females, the wages of mildly obese white and black men were higher than their standard weight counterparts. Men only experienced wage penalties at the very highest weight levels.
   
   
4. "Studies assessing the effect of both employee weight and other suspected bases for discrimination (sex, specific disabilities, etc.) provide evidence of the relative level of weight-based bias; they suggest that weight-related bias may be greater than that associated with other characteristics.
   
   For example, Pingitore et al's (1994) study manipulating applicant weight, applicant sex and job type, found that applicant weight explained 34.6% of the variance in hiring decisions. In contrast 10.6% of the variance was explained by the sex of the applicant.
   
   Brink (1988) examined the potential effect of applicant weight, age, sex and race on ratings of candidate acceptability in a laboratory setting. Overweight candidates were rated significantly lower, but none of the other manipulations has a significant effect. A final example is provided by Kennedy and Hormant's (1984) investigation of the effect of social stigmas on decisions regarding employee discharge. They found that participants displayed more negative attitudes toward overweight employees than ex-felons or ex-mental patients."
   
   
5. Michigan is the only state that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of weight. In studies conducted in settings unrelated to employment, Roehling found some evidence that overweight women were evaluated more negatively than overweight men. Although the findings were not consistent, Roehling stated, "Where an interaction is found, overweight women are evaluated more negatively than overweight men." He also found that overweight persons are denigrated by doctors, nurses, peers, small children and their parent(s).
   
   

Wages and Benefits

Several studies have found that women with obesity earned less than non-obese women.

In a study by Rothblum and colleagues, of persons who were 50 percent or more above their ideal weight, 26 percent reported they were denied benefits such as health insurance because of their weight and 17 percent reported being pressured to resign or fired because of their weight.

Legal Issues

The Civil Rights Act of 1964, (Title VII, 42 U.S.C. §2000 et seq.) established basic federal law on employment discrimination. It does not identify weight as a protected characteristic, and as a result does not provide direct protection for obese individuals who have been discriminated against by their employer due to their weight.

The differential application of weight standards, formal or informal, to members of protected classes may constitute disparate treatment discrimination.

In Gerdom v. Continental Airlines Inc., 692 F2d. 602, 30 FEP 235 (9th Cir. 1982; en banc), the court determined that the airline's weight restriction program treated employees differently based on sex because it was designed to apply only to females, and "it was not merely slenderness, but slenderness of female employees which the employer considered critical." The airline argued that it had a competitive strategy featuring attractive flight attendants and that a slender female was a bona fide occupational qualification (BFOQ). The court rejected this argument holding that customer preference unrelated to the ability to do the job cannot justify discriminatory policies.

Disparate treatment may also be found if weight policies designed to apply to all groups are enforced at a significantly higher rate against a protected group. Union of Flight Attendants v. Pan American World Airways, Inc., 50 FEP 1698 (N.D. Cal 1987)

An employer's use of formal or informal weight standards may involve illegal discrimination if, though neutral on its face, the rule has a significant disparate impact on a protected class. In other words, if a claimant established that the weight rule was having an adverse impact on African Americans, Title VII would require an employer to justify its weight rules by showing that it is job-related and consistent with business necessity.

Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

The Rehabilitation Act and the ADA provide protection against employment discrimination. Under both acts, a person must establish that he or she is an individual with a disability within the meaning of the acts. This includes anyone who has a physical or mental disability that substantially limits one or more major life activities of the individual, a record of such impairment or who is regarded as having such impairment. Equal Employment Opportunities Commission (EEOC)

EEOC regulations define "major life activities" as "functions such as caring for oneself, performing manual tasks, walking, seeing, hearing, speaking, breathing, learning and working. The regulations require that the 'working" limitation requires evidence of being significantly restricted in the ability to perform either a class of jobs or a broad range of jobs in various classes as compared to the average person having comparable training, skills and abilities. The inability to perform a specific job does not constitute a substantial limitation in the major life activity of working. The EEOC regulations implementing the ADA explicitly excludes height or weight within normal ranges and are not the result of a physiological disorder. According to the regulation, obesity will considered as a disability except in "rare circumstances." (29 C.F.R. §1630.2)

What is really sad is dating! People would rather you be a drug addict than fat! It makes me sick!

Well if that is the case, one can hope they get Hep. C from their drug addict...oh that was mean wasn't it?? Don't worry karma is gonna get em back!

Wow! I have found that since college, I really dont see as much discrimination against me, I get job offers all the time, I get hit on a lot, and I really have a blast. I dont ever feel too uncomfortable around others, although I am still mentally scarred from the past...hmmm....this is interesting, is it because I have lost more weight? Would it be different if I still weighed the same? Is it because I am in a sorority? Or are people really more open-minded here than in my old town? I dunno, but I like it

Tired Old Man,

I know.....I've given her way too long of a rope. You're right, I should have done something long ago.

llewis

I have experienced tons of weight discrimintion but the one I really need to vent about is not about me.

My best friend (lets call her "T"), who is my twin from another mother, we look very much alike. She's 6'2" Im 6'1" and are usually with 20lbs of each other. However, when she became pregnant her weight (obviously) increased. She went from around 340lbs to around 400lbs. Yesterday, in the Labor and Delivery wing of the top hospital in NYC one of our friends (lets call her D) overheard "T's" personal nurse (good insurance) and another nurse discussing "T".

It went like this:

T's nurse, who should be ordering a larger bed for the OR, says something inaudable.

The Other nurse says loudly, with arms out stretched: Who the Big Fat one? :faint:

And T's nures responds seeing D: Shhhh.

D called the nurses out saying "Is this patient confidentiality? Do you gossip about all of your patients? You should not be discussing her with her she's not the doctor!"

Im not really sure if T heard D retell the story when D returned to the room but I did and I will def make sure heads roll. How dare they behave so disrespectfully. My mother who works in the very same Hospital says that what they did is illegal. Furthermore, this is not the behaviour one expects in the Top Hospital in NY from the staff of its top OB team. This is the hospital I considered going to for my Band, good thing I chose another.

This all happened yesterday morning around 4:30am and after having a C section (for which the idiot nurse order the bigger table) T delivered a 10lb 6oz baby girl. I am offically a godmother.

I have been experiencing discrimination for the 4 months we have been living in Atlanta. I have been looking for a job and unable to find one. I have been to dozens of interviews, some of them follow-ups to phone interviews. On the phone, I am "an excellent candidate, very qualified, good references, blah blah blah". Then I walk in for the face to face. Everyone in the office looks like they just stepped out of a fashion magazine. Still, I put on my happy face and go in to do the interview like I really believe I will get the job. It usually takes 15 minutes or less for them to show me the door. It breaks my heart.

As a result, we are moving back to South Carolina and I can get a job at the school I left when we moved here. They know what a good employee I am because they gave me the chance to prove myself with no regard for my weight.

I own my own beauty business and am opening up a fixed storefront soon.

My sales have gone up with my weight going down. In sales, you are not just presenting the product...but yourself.

I'm more credible now as I present a product and share the benefits.

WOW! I totally forgot that I started this thread a long time ago!! Well, since I have moved back to my hometown Ive had pure HELL finding a job!! WOMEN are going over me for thinner candidates! What? Fat makes me lazy? I know over weight people who can get more done in a day than thin people... I definately see the difference in discrimination since Ive moved back. In a city, Im just another person...in my hometown Im a subject of conversation! lol! But now they have something else to talk about...

I found an interesting website today about weight discrimination (The Council on Weight Discrimination) that you may find interesting. Here's the link: Council on Size and Weight Discrimination

I think the worst is when you go out to eat and people sit there and judge you by what you are eating..order a slad..o your on a diet..no I just freakin like salads back off..Or o do you really want desert? grr..

In my German I class once they have these reall old desks from like 1950, made for smaller people than me. my stomach hung over the top and I could barely get my knees under..it was awful. One day the skinny cheerleader and I were pairedup as a group and she said..outloud..I dont want to be in her group, she cant even fit into her desk. I wanted to die...I think I came back with a cutting remark about her sleeping around, its kinda a blur behind the embrassment

On a feild trip for school we had to walk along the jettys looking for invertebrates and the teacher asked if any of us could dive in to get a sea cucumber, i volunteered but she wouldnt let me...just cause im fat I can swim...another prof used to treat me like crap everyday. Never answered my questions or listened to my responses, and whenever we had direct contact, he would turn up hes nose..apparently you can gain weight by looking at someone whose fat..It really ticked him off when I made a 100 on his final..I stood there and watched him grade it...

I wanted to reply to this page because I have felt something from many young people that I want to share. I am 55. I am a teacher. I work with many young, thin women. The thing I have noticed as I have gotten older and heavier is the way they ignore us older teachers. (NOT ALL, BUT TOO MANY)Please understand they are not ignoring us on purpose. That is the saddest part. They just do not see us as someone to talk to. One of my coworkers is thin and young. Another is 60. Both dress beautifully. I dress good...I think too. As we enter the lounge everyday, the younger teachers compliment the younger one. No one seems to ever notice myself or the other older teacher no matter how good we look or what we where. This has happened for a long time now. I think it is so sad that people see only the outside and without even realizing it ignore the not as attractive people. They do not know they are doing it and probably would be horrified if I ever pointed it out which I would never do. I think this must be how older people feel sometimes. Unimportant. I hope I have never done this to someone but of course I wonder. What is really sad is that older people regardless of weight have so much to offer. So much experience. One day one of the very thin teachers came down the hall in the middle of winter with open toed shoes and a sleeveless top. As she talked she shivered and had goose bumps on her arms. When she left I looked at the other thin teacher she came to talk to and I said why would she wear no clothes on such a cold day. The teacher said do you really want to know. She wants to look cute. I was surprised and said aren't their cute warm clothes and she said she wants to show skin. I was surprised. and felt a little nieve about things of this nature. Comments welcomed.

I posted this as a comment to someone else's post and thought this might be an interesting topic with lots of controversy. Fee free to comment.

I wanted to reply to this page because I have felt something from many young people that I want to share. I am 55. I am a teacher. I work with many young, thin women. The thing I have noticed as I have gotten older and heavier is the way they ignore us older teachers. (NOT ALL, BUT TOO MANY)Please understand they are not ignoring us on purpose. That is the saddest part. They just do not see us as someone to talk to. One of my coworkers is thin and young. Another is 60. Both dress beautifully. I dress good...I think too. As we enter the lounge everyday, the younger teachers compliment the younger one. No one seems to ever notice myself or the other older teacher no matter how good we look or what we where. This has happened for a long time now. I think it is so sad that people see only the outside and without even realizing it ignore the not as attractive people. They do not know they are doing it and probably would be horrified if I ever pointed it out which I would never do. I think this must be how older people feel sometimes. Unimportant. I hope I have never done this to someone but of course I wonder. What is really sad is that older people regardless of weight have so much to offer. So much experience. One day one of the very thin teachers came down the hall in the middle of winter with open toed shoes and a sleeveless top. As she talked she shivered and had goose bumps on her arms. When she left I looked at the other thin teacher she came to talk to and I said why would she wear no clothes on such a cold day. The teacher said do you really want to know. She wants to look cute. I was surprised and said aren't their cute warm clothes and she said she wants to show skin. I was surprised. and felt a little nieve about things of this nature. Comments welcomed.

I know how to spell wear. Guess I got excited typing. Anothe thing that happens to seniors. Ha!

It is true that people do tend to find people who don't fit into their own categories to be largely invisible. They don't always behave this way in order to be mean or exclusionary; they often simply don't see those other people who fall outside their personal realm of interest. I, for instance, have never had children and don't find them interesting, and it is for this reason that I simply don't "see" them unless one of them starts talking to me. I don't notice teenage boys or girls, young mothers with babies because they don't fall into "my" category. I am not being rude, I am simply not paying attention is all. I do notice other women who are in my age group and I notice men because I like them. I also notice people with pets because I have animals, too.

This being said, there is nothing worse than being ignored when you are in a client situation. I saw a saleswoman repeatedly ignore my mum and address all her questions to me despite constantly being redirected when it was my mum, not me, who was the one buying clothes. It was bluddy rude.