Overweight and Undereducated, Obesity Impacts One's Health and Income

The nation’s obesity epidemic affects not only health, but economic outcomes, experts from Utah State University argued in an op-ed appearing in The New York Times this month. Christy M. Glass and Eric N. Reither, associate professors of sociology in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, co-authored the opinion piece with Steven A. Haas, a social demographer at Arizona State University, to raise awareness about obesity prevention.

The three professors recently conducted a study of how weight influences the career trajectory of women. Using three decades of employment data from a longitudinal project tracking more than 10,300 people who graduated from Wisconsin high schools in 1957, they were able to examine respondents’ career paths from entry to retirement.

They found that overweight women earned less over the course of their lives than their thinner peers — a difference resulting not from bias on the part of employers as previously believed, but from less education. Regardless of their academic ability, ambition or socioeconomic status, overweight women were less likely to earn college degrees than skinnier classmates. The study is the first to reveal education as the key factor in reducing career achievement of overweight women.

“Incredibly capable girls aren’t realizing their potential and that is a loss for us all,” Glass said. “It’s a social tragedy as well as an individual tragedy.”

Previous studies have demonstrated that employers often attribute positive traits such as cooperativeness, intelligence and competence to attractive female employees, and view heavy women — often considered less attractive — as less productive, less capable of managing others. However, the new evidence suggests the disparity of career advancement begins long before an overweight individual even sets foot in the workplace — it occurs while people are still in the classroom.

“It contradicts a lot of conventional wisdom,” said Glass, whose research focuses on labor market studies and social inequalities.

The researchers anticipated they would find indirect effects of employer discrimination, and were surprised when they didn’t, she said. “It doesn’t mean that discrimination is not going on, it just means we didn’t find it our study.”

However, they did observe that body size does not impact career attainment as much for overweight men. One reason may be that overweight girls are more stigmatized and isolated than overweight boys and, perhaps, judged more harshly by their teachers and peers, the authors propose. Heavier boys are also more likely to be involved in extracurricular activities such as sports that expand their social circles. Studies have shown teenagers who feel less connected to teachers and their peers are also less likely to graduate and go on to college.

Their findings were published last year in the journal Social Forces, and recently captured the attention of a Times editor who invited the investigators to write an op-ed about their study. Glass and Reither have published widely in peer-reviewed journals in their respective fields. However, the editorial was an ideal forum to advocate for policy changes to a broader audience.

“The economic harm to overweight women is more than a series of personal troubles; it may contribute to the rising disparities between rich and poor, and it is a drain on the human capital and productivity of our nation,” they wrote.

According to statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 17 percent of children and adolescents aged 2 to 19-years-old are obese. However, the pandemic extends beyond borders.

“What is happening is not just a United States problem, it’s a global problem,” said Reither, a demographer who focuses his research on human morbidity issues. “Childhood obesity is a sociological puzzle. It represents something has changed in our society, and changed rapidly.”

The investigators propose implementing health policies that promote healthy behavior and work towards shifting attitudes about individuals who are overweight. After their article ran June 2, Glass and Reither were contacted by several readers who criticized obesity as being an individual failure, rather than a societal one. The professors recommend public health campaigns that will help change the perception of overweight individuals rather than further stigmatize them.

They argue school administrators and teachers need to be vigilant about bullying of overweight students, and encourage overweight adolescents, particularly girls, to participate in college preparatory classes and extracurricular activities.

“We’re advocating obesity prevention at the same time we are trying to sensitize people to be decent human beings,” said Reither.

Related links:

• Glass and Reither’s colleague Steve Haas was featured on MSNBC June 8 to discuss the study.
• USU Department of Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology
• USU College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Contact: Christy M. Glass, (435) 797-1258, christy.glass@usu.edu; Eric N. Reither, (435) 797-1217, eric.reither@usu.edu

Writer: Kristen Munson, PR specialist, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, (435) 797-0267, kristen.munson@usu.edu