It stands to reason, then, that in the place where we are judged more stringently than anywhere else – a job interview – our size and weight might come into it.

But that doesn’t make it right.

Being plus-size does not make you bad at your job. It does not make you a lazy or careless person. There is no reason why a plus-size woman should not be in customer or client-facing roles. There is no reason why Laura couldn’t work in a fashion boutique as a plus-size woman, or why a plus-size woman shouldn’t be able to represent a business successfully. There is no reason why a plus-size woman can’t be a manager or a team leader. There is no reason why a plus-size woman can’t make a presentation or pitch for new business. There is no reason why a plus-size woman shouldn’t be promoted or given a pay-rise. There is no reason why a plus-size woman can’t be a CEO.

And yet, they overwhelmingly are not.

In America, only 15% of recruiters said that they would hire an overweight woman. (A full fifth of those surveyed noted that they thought the overweight woman looked “lazy”.) Only between five and 22% of American female CEOs could be considered plus-size. Sheryl Sandberg of Facebook isn’t. Carolyn McCall of Easyjet isn’t. Sara Blakely of Spanx isn’t. Emily Weiss of Glossier isn’t. It’s lonely at the top for women who aren’t sample size: Oprah is probably the highest-profile plus-size woman who runs her own company. But she’s only one person.

The deck is stacked against plus-size women. There’s a lack of retailers offering corporate attire in their size. They don’t appear in marketing materials for companies, so they are unlikely to see themselves represented in those companies’ ranks. Even finding stock images of plus-size women in the office for this story was an almost impossible task. It’s hard to have a dream if everyone in that dream doesn’t look like you.

“Plus-size women are being discriminated against in the workplace and it has to end“