back to article Prof: Fat ladies don't get to be CEOs, lardy blokes do

New research carried out on Fortune 1000 CEOs indicates that fatcat biz kingpins are, in fact, fatter than the rest of us - but not if they're women. Counterintuitively perhaps, it appears that breaking through the glass ceiling is more difficult for the heftier lady. "The results suggest that while being obese limits the …

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  1. John Mackenzie
    Coat

    Fat ladies don't get to be CEOs...

    Probably because they are too busy singing.....

    ...getting coat

  2. Master Baker
    Coat

    How do you get a Fat Bird into bed?

    Piece of cake...

  3. al
    Paris Hilton

    Is it the cause or just a corelation ?

    Isn't it entirely possible that women who are career conscious are also health conscious ?

    Paris, coz she might be CEO of Hilton hotels one day

    (and finally would have execs lined up - to eat rather than be eaten).

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Flame

    One problem.

    Imagine the questionnaire with regard to this research.

    Q. Is your female CEO fat? (Y/N)

    Now - who in their right mind would answer 'Y' ?

  5. Osiris
    Coat

    This is a title

    Time to start working on that promotion.

    Mines the one with the cream pies in the pockets.

  6. Tony

    meh

    Is it not possible that none of them were fat when they got the job, but that less figure-conscious men spent their 7 figure salary on eating out and beer, whereas with women under more (perceived) pressure to look slim and healthy they spent theirs on personal trainers or liposuction?

  7. Brutus
    Happy

    Correlation?

    Did the researchers check historical photos to ensure that the CEOs had been fat/thin before climbing that greasy pole? I would be very interested to know if the job of CEO turns a boss-lite into a lard-boss (and equally if the stresses of running HP would cause a boss to lose weight).

  8. Tom

    brutus

    After calling bullshit on another piece on the reg, you took the words out of my mouth...

    In other news: Men who drive frequently are fatter than their walking counterparts, therefore, regulaly buying petrol makes you fat.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    drool

    Just think how many doughnuts you could buy with £x,000,000 pa.

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    I Guess Lee Did OK

    http://www.pacificviews.org/weblog/archives/images/lee_raymond.jpg

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    In other news

    IT folks are geekier than the general population.

  12. Jim

    pencil33

    I'm with Brutus: do the blokes balloon out after becoming CEO, or while in middle management, or are they tubby to start with ? At what age should I start dodging the lettuce ?

  13. Peyton

    too perfect

    Someone needs to send this report to the fellas that had the plastic surgery in the other article- apparently they should've spent their loan on some sort of reverse-liposuction!

  14. John Savard

    I'm not surprised

    If one looks at newsreaders - what we call anchorpersons on this side of the Atlantic - one will find the same thing. Men are not judged by their looks nearly as much as women are. An older man, or one with a bit of extra weight, might simply be thought of as mature and wise, but when women put on weight, or show their age, the impression others - to some extent, even women as well as men - have is exclusively negative.

    A study that confirms the obvious might be a waste of time, but I wouldn't suspect it of finding the wrong answer.

  15. RW

    When did a CEO become a lard-ass and why?

    Simply put, age.

    The majority of men thicken as they age. A former boss of mine, as lean and active a person as you will ever meet, ran into me years after he'd moved on. I was shocked at how he'd gone very thick through the middle.

    Ergo, since it takes longer to become CEO than a middle management drone, CEOs can be expected to be heftier than mm.

    QED etc.

  16. MadonnaC
    Joke

    @RW

    I agree - some bosses i know have grown as thick as 2 short planks

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    hamburgler fatties

    41% overweight?

    I thought that sounded low, 66% according to:

    http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/overwt.htm

    Anyway, as other commenters have already argued, the whole process is highly flawed and subjective.

  18. Dave
    Dead Vulture

    Logic

    "Given that all this is based on wild guesses at body mass index (BMI), and that BMI is itself a deeply suspicious way of measuring fatness"

    Not so. The experiment was clearly based on actual (apparent) body mass, not on BMI at all. The latter may have been quoted in the study but you have your comment totally reversed.

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