The Skinny on Success: Body Mass, Gender and Occupational Standing Across the Life Course

• Published in: Social forces Vol. 88; no. 4; pp. 1777 - 1806
• Main Authors: Glass, Christy M., Haas, Steven A., Reither, Eric N.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chapel Hill, NC The University of North Carolina Press 01.06.2010; University of North Carolina Press; Oxford University Press
• Subjects: Academic education; Adolescents; Analysis; Body Composition; Body size; Body weights and measures; Career Development; Careers; Context Effect; Data Analysis; Discrimination; Economic aspects; Education Work Relationship; Educational Attainment; Employment; Employment discrimination; Employment Level; Employment Opportunities; Female employees; Females; Fines & penalties; Gender Discrimination; Labor markets; Level of education; Life course theory; Longitudinal Studies; Marital status; Markets; Marriage; Mate selection; Men; Mens health; Obesity; Occupational achievement; Occupations; Overweight; Peers; Secondary schools; Sex; Sex (Biology); Social aspects; SOCIAL STRATIFICATION &amp MOBILITY; Socioeconomic factors; Socioeconomic Status; Sociology; Sociology of communication and mass media. Sociolinguistics; Sociology of knowledge and sociology of culture; Sociology of the body; Sociology of work; Sociology of work and sociology of organizations; Structural Analysis (Science); Studies; Success; Trajectories; Variance analysis; Women workers; Working population. Employment. Women's work; Working Women; United States; Malaysia; United States > US; Wisconsin; Utah; Obesity; Discrimination; Body (Human); Professional career; Occupational status; Longitudinal Analysis; Occupational Achievement
• ISSN: 0037-7732; 1534-7605
• DOI: 10.1353/sof.2010.0012

Several studies have analyzed the impact of obesity on occupational standing. This study extends previous research by estimating the influence of body mass on occupational attainment over three decades of the career using data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study. In a series of covariance structure analyses, we considered three mechanisms that may alter the career trajectories of heavy individuals: (1. employment-based discrimination, (2. educational attainment, and (3. marriage market processes. Unlike previous studies, we found limited evidence that employment-based discrimination impaired the career trajectories of either men or women. Instead, we found that heavy women received less post-secondary schooling than their thinner peers, which in turn adversely affected their occupational standing at each point in their careers.