Let me ask you something.
When you picture the head of the boardroom table, who do you see?
Because if a picture of various plus size executives didn’t immediately come to mind, you are not wrong. You are conditioned.
I didn’t wake up one day feeling dramatic about this. I started noticing patterns. Then I went digging. And the deeper I went, the clearer it became that plus size professionals are not missing from leadership because of a lack of skill. They are missing because bias shows up long before anyone ever says “promotion.”
And once you clock it, you can’t unsee it.
The Boardroom Has a Bias Problem We Pretend Not to Notice
There are very few plus size CEOs in America’s Fortune 500 companies. That’s not an opinion. That’s what happens when access quietly narrows at every stage of the pipeline.
As I was researching this, I kept coming across the same theme in interviews with founders and executives. Weight bias isn’t loud. It’s polite. It hides behind words like “polish,” “presence,” and “executive look.”
Alexandra Waldman, co founder and creative director of Universal Standard, said it out loud in Forbes in a way that felt refreshingly honest:
“There’s definitely a bias against bigger bodies. No question about that.”
That statement lands harder when it comes from someone who outfits professional women for a living. She’s not guessing. She’s responding to what her customers experience every day.
Bias Shows Up Before the First Yes
Here’s where things get uncomfortable.
While looking into hiring practices, I came across a Fairygodboss study that stopped me in my tracks. Recruiters were shown a résumé paired with a photo of a plus size woman. Many described her as confident and friendly. But when it came time to imagine actually hiring her, only 15.2 percent said they would.
Even more telling? One in five labeled her as lazy.
Same résumé. Same qualifications. Different body. Different outcome.
And if plus size women are filtered out at the hiring stage, we already know what that means for leadership pipelines. You cannot promote who you never let in.
Yes, This Bias Follows Women All the Way to the Paycheck
I’m not the only one who noticed this pattern. When I looked at long term wage data, the same issue kept surfacing.
Economists Timothy Judge and Daniel Cable followed more than 12,000 Americans over several decades and tracked income alongside weight changes. What they found was not subtle. Weight gain was linked to wage penalties, especially for women, even when experience and performance stayed the same.
This is not about effort. This is about perception quietly shaping earning power, year after year.
The Stereotypes Plus Size Executives Have to Outperform
If you have ever felt like you had to work twice as hard to be seen as half as capable, you’re not imagining it.
I found repeated evidence that plus size professionals are often assumed to be less disciplined, less motivated, or less competent. These assumptions don’t usually show up as insults. They show up as hesitation.
A study published in Human Relations found that higher body weight influenced how managers rated motivation and competence, even when job performance was identical.
In other words, excellence doesn’t always protect you from bias.
The Real Plot Twist: Stigma Does More Harm Than Weight
This part matters.
While reviewing health and workplace data, something became very clear. The stigma around weight causes more harm than weight itself.
Psychologists writing for the American Psychological Association have documented how weight stigma increases stress, anxiety, and depression, and can even worsen metabolic health.
So, the bias meant to shame bodies ends up making people less healthy. That irony is not lost on anyone paying attention.
How Plus Size Executives Strategically Navigate Leadership Spaces
Plus size executives who reach the C suite rarely get there by accident.
In interviews and leadership research, one theme comes up again and again. Visibility becomes strategy. Speaking first. Leading decisively. Being unmistakably prepared.
Studies on leadership perception show that emphasizing cues like decisiveness, ambition, and authority can help counteract bias, though it often requires extra emotional labor.
That extra labor is the invisible tax plus size leaders pay just to be seen as baseline competent.
Some Companies Are Finally Addressing It
Not all organizations are ignoring this.
When weight bias is explicitly included in diversity and inclusion training, employees report higher awareness and reduced discriminatory behavior. I came across this while reviewing inclusion research published in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Employment attorney Richard Cohen of FisherBroyles has also stressed that this work cannot be delegated downward:
“Inclusion has to start at the top. Senior leaders must understand bias and model behavior that sets the standard.”
Technology Helps, But Culture Still Does the Heavy Lifting
Some companies are removing photos from résumés and using structured interviews to reduce appearance-based bias. Platforms like ThoughtExchange allow anonymous input to help leaders hear ideas without attaching them to bodies.
It’s not perfect. But it’s a start.
The Legal Reality Leaves Gaps
Here’s something I didn’t realize until I looked it up.
Weight discrimination is not broadly protected under US employment law. Michigan is the only state with explicit protections, and a few cities have local ordinances.
Employment attorney Terese Connolly of Culhane Meadows explains that protection only applies when weight is tied to a disability under the ADA.
Which leaves a lot of professionals unprotected.
Inclusion Also Means Rethinking Physical Space
Leadership inclusion isn’t just about mindset. It’s about furniture.
The Job Accommodation Network notes that appropriate seating and ADA compliant environments improve productivity and retention for employees of all sizes.
No executive should be distracted by whether the chair fits while they’re making million-dollar decisions.
Mental Health Belongs in the Leadership Conversation
Navigating bias takes a toll.
Organizations like the National Academies of Sciences have highlighted the need for employers to address obesity as a chronic condition and support mental wellbeing as part of retention strategies.
Supporting plus size executives means supporting the whole person, not just the title.
The Question This Leaves Us With
After all of this, here’s the question that won’t leave me alone.
If plus size professionals are already over prepared, over visible, and over delivering just to be taken seriously, what would leadership look like if bias stopped blocking the door?
Because talent has never been the issue. Access has.
And that’s the real power conversation we need to be having.
