Physicality and Beauty in Hiring Preferences Discrimination

RedTracker| Beautiful women don’t always have the edge. Attractive women are discriminated against when applying for jobs considered “masculine” and where appearance is not seen as important to the job. Positions with job titles like manager of research and development, director of finance, mechanical engineer and construction supervisor appear to carry a bias against attractive women. In the case of men, no bias was detected. via Science Daily

In a similar vein, a recent Newsweek survey of 292 hiring managers and 964 members of the public concluded that looks matter in every aspect of the workplace, and they matter more significantly for women. In the Newsweek study looks rated above education and sense of humor as the third most important characteristic. Confidence and experience were the top two priorities in this survey.

The Newsweek survey also detected a bias among women for ‘masculine’ vs ‘feminine’ jobs.