It isn’t even really a word according to my Microsoft Word spell check, but I’d like to consider heightism in this post. If you haven’t heard of it here is a definition from Wikipedia: “a form of discrimination based on height. In principle it can refer to unfavourable treatment of either unusually tall or short people” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heightism). Gotta love how they threw in the word unusual, eh? And why just “In principle”? The general idea that this definition suggests is that in many situations short = bad, tall = bad, and regular height = good. But if you read through the entry I think many people actually see it as short = bad, tall = good, regular height = also good. Hmmm… interesting. I’ll come back to this.
I can’t say if I’ve ever been either given an opportunity or been discriminated against based on my height. I know that growing up people often saw me as a few years older than I actually was. Maybe this gave me a leg up in a job interview or something. I really can’t say. I also can’t say how my height will affect my eventual career – if it has any impact at all. How it could have a real impact for a tall person is if that person feels very self conscious due to their height and carries them self nervously or without confidence. I can see that costing someone a job at no fault to the employer. So are we at risk for self-imposed heightism? Can we be so aware of and so negatively-conscious of our height that we end up missing employment opportunities, dates, friends, gatherings, etc. etc. ? I think it is possible and something to think about.
Alright, back to Wikipedia. This entry irritated me over and over and over again. The discussion of the height of Fortune 500 CEOs that I’m sure we’re all familiar with did not mention women at all, only the average American male height. I know female CEOs are few and far between (a whole other issue) but come on! What about tall females? How does being tall impact women at work?
Another gem was this paragraph:
Conversely, studies have shown that women of below average height are more likely to be married and have children than women of above average height. Some reasons which have been suggested for this situation include earlier fertility of shorter women, and that a shorter woman makes her husband feel taller in comparison and therefore more masculine.
I don’t think I even need to comment on this one… aren’t these reasons kind of lame? We’re going back to a caveman argument here. And, while I do appreciate the challenges that come in a relationship where the woman is taller than the man, I hope that we can eventually get away from this idea that for a man to be shorter than a woman is emasculating.
The heightism in the media section was also noticeably missing female examples or discussion.
So overall for me heightism is an interesting concept with really important implications – especially, I began to understand after reading more, for the short person. But what I am curious about is if the tall advantage mentioned over and over applies to both sexes or just to men. I also think my idea of self-imposed heightism might be interesting… the next time you feel yourself slouch think about it (I will too) and maybe we’ll all be standing a bit taller.
This is interesting and something I’ve worried about.
I don’t know that many tall women, but I have one friend who is two meters tall and another who is very close to that. Both of them have had a lot of trouble getting work even though they have college degrees and are smart and attractive (attractiveness shouldn’t count – but whenever I mention this someone, usually a guy, says – I bet they are ugly).
Both have part time jobs working in stores. The stores do not want them in positions where they are working with customers – one even said something like you will startle them. So they end up doing a lot of work in back or off hours stocking.
I’m ten cm shorter than either of these women and work in a business where I don’t have a lot of contact with new people. I do tend to get along easier with the women and when new people come in, women warm up much more quickly.
It would be very interesting to see how tall women do in the workplace. All of the executive women I’ve met strike me as being of average height, but personal observations aren’t worth a lot.
Hi Jheri,
Thanks for posting… I was shocked to hear your example about your friends not being in customer facing positions because they might startle people. That’s terrible.
I think I agree that most female execs I’ve seen are average height as well, but like you that’s only my personal observation.