‘Lookism’ is alive and well and getting worse. Here’s why your appearance is judged more than performance

Research of nearly 1,000 leaders, social media posts, and articles found myriad cases of lookism showing women’s appearance at work is “never quite right.”

Women have endured critiques over their appearance since their entry into public spaces. But since Vice President Kamala Harris’s loss in the United States presidential election, criticism of women and their bodies has become even more explicit and misogynistic. The goal is to tell women to “get back in the kitchen” at home and stay out of the public domain. Combatting this bias against women is more important than ever, as disapproval of women’s appearance and bodies still happens to women at work every day in subtle and overt ways.