Using real employed samples, multiple field studies indicate that fat women experience more negative outcomes than fat men. In one study conducted by Steven Gortmaker and colleagues and using over 10,000 randomly selected participants, overweight women had completed fewer years of formal education, had higher rates of poverty, and earned almost $7,000 per year less than slim women.* Register, and Williams found that young women who were at least 20% over their "ideal" weights earned 12% less than women who were not fat. No effects were found for fat men, however.* Rebecca Puhl and her colleagues at Yale University found that the most overweight women had much higher rates of discrimination; women with a 30 to 35 BMI were three times more likely to report discrimination than similarly overweight men.*

Jos Pagn and Alberto Dvila's study using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth indicated that fat women were segregated into lower-paying occupations. Still, fat men were more well-represented across occupations. Fat women earned less than thin women, but fat men did not earn less than thin men.* Researchers have also found fat men and fat women to be less likely to be married than their thinner counterparts, although women fare worse than men (20% less likely vs. 11% less likely to be married).*

In their study of the effects of weight on pay, Tim Judge and Dan Cable used data from American and German samples. The researchers hypothesized that the effects of weight gain on men and women would be different, and these differences would be manifested in complex rather than straightforward, linear ways. They used data collected over the years, including salary and weight for men and women, among other variables. They found that the thinnest women who gained weight over time suffered harsher penalties than average women. Weight gains were positive for thin men, however. Thin men were rewarded for weight gain until they reached the point of obesity. They recommended more studies investigating the complex relationship between thinness for women (which is rewarded) and for men (which is penalized); both suggest deviations from norms of desired bodies for people of their genderor stigma, as previously described.*

1. Why are the work-related effects of being overweight different for men and women?

2. Researchers have debated whether people are fat because they are poor or are poor because they are fat. How might each affect the other? Explain.