As of: February 7, 2024, 4:45 p.m
By: Marco Blanco Ucles
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A long-term study from America shows that attractive men climb the career ladder faster than attractive women.
The cliché has long persisted in the working world: women with attractive looks have an easier time than other employees to advance in the job.
A long-term study by Alexi Gugushvili and Grzegorz Bulczak, two sociologists from Norway and Poland, now shows something different: In the world of work, it is not attractive women who benefit most from their appearance, but rather attractive men.
Study follows 11,000 young Americans
The study reported by
CNBC
began in 1993. Gugushvili and Bulczak collected the demographics and socioeconomic status of more than 11,000 young Americans.
The National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (NLSAH) provided them with the data.
After selecting their candidates, they asked volunteers to rate the people in four categories: very attractive, attractive, unattractive and very unattractive.
Sociologists from Norway and Poland have found that attractive men benefit more in the world of work than attractive women.
© SuperStock/IMAGO
Gugushvili and Bulczak consciously chose teenagers because adults would find it easier to manipulate or change their appearance.
Two decades later, the two sociologists compared the career status of the now adult subjects.
They discovered that those who had climbed the career ladder the fastest - and earned the most - were the men who had been rated "very attractive" as children.
The difference between women and men at work is also striking in Germany, as the gender pay gap proves.
More attractive women also have a slight advantage
Even potential obstacles such as growing up poor often did not prevent attractive men from quickly climbing the career ladder.
According to the study, more attractive women also have a slight advantage over less attractive women, but not to the same extent as attractive men.
"This suggests that for men, attractiveness plays an important role in their career success, whether it's a raise, a promotion, or access to more competitive jobs," explains Gugushvili, according to the CNBC
report
.
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Further research has found that many of the characteristics people use to describe strong leaders are male.
Jennie Blumenthal, founder and CEO of
Corporate Rehab
, tells
CNBC
: “We tend to assume that someone who is stronger, taller and better looking than their peers is better able to take on a leadership role, which automatically makes women be disadvantaged.”
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According to CNBC
, Gugushvili and Bulczak found
that women's attractiveness is usually characterized by "weak" feminine qualities such as passivity, kindness, tenderness and love.
A problem that is still deeply rooted in people's minds today.
Everyone has to deal with setbacks in their job.
However, mistakes can also be converted into success.