Overweight, underpaid
Sexual, racial, and age discrimination are outlawed. Are sizeism and lookism the last prejudices?
Sonya is heavily overweight and used to what she describes as 'fatism' from the general public. But she hadn't expected her obesity to affect her career prospects. 'I knew the moment I turned up to my last job interview that my chances were low' she says. 'When I met my two interviewers, I knew I'd lost immediately because of the way they looked at me. The thing that was most upsetting was that the telephone conversation I'd had with one of them beforehand suggested I had all the skills and experience necessary and the interview was just a formality.'
'Lookism' is the latest discrimination to hit the workplace, according to the law firm, Eversheds. Victims of the trend are judged by employers on aspects of their appearance ranging from weight to clothing and from hairstyle to body percing. Some are turned down for jobs, others miss out on promotion. The latest research has revealed a culture of appearance discrimination sweeping businesses across the world. A staggering 16% of Americans believe they have been discriminated against because of the way they look and 33% believe that those who are more physicially attractive are more likely to get promoted.
Discrimination claims involving alleged lookism are surging in the US. In fact, there are only two states of America that have specific law against appearance discrimination. In other states, lawyers are turning to discrimination laws relating a issues like gender, race and disability. So if someone is overweight because of a clinical problem, they can claim disability discrimination.
There are examples of lookism issues already arising in the UK as well. A couple of years ago, Fitness First received widespread criticism after a leaked email claimed that larger employees did not fit the firm's image. In the UK, we don't have any laws against appearance discrimination, but Ms Emma Harris, an associate at Eversheds, believes it won't be long before we do. 'I think it's only a matter of time before some kind of beauty bias legislation comes into play,' she says. In the meantime, victims of lookism are, like most Americans, relying on sex, race and disability discrimination. Among the British who have been successful in an indirect discrimination claim are Matthew Thompson, who last year argued that he had suffered sexual discrimination because he was forced to wear a tie while his female colleagues weren't, and a man who was made to cut his long hair by his employers.