--- ---  # How a Female Political Candidate's Looks Affect Her Ability to Win  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 20, 2014 5:33 PM UTC  The legs of five women members of the U.S. House of Representatives are seen during the opening session of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012. The legs of five women members of the U.S. House of Representatives are seen during the opening session of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012.Rick Wilking—Reuters  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent May 20, 2014 5:33 PM UTC We might have guessed this to be true, but now science proves it: overweight women are much less likely to hold political office than their overweight male counterparts or their skinny female counterparts. [New research](http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2014/weight-bias-plagues-us-elections/) published Monday in the journal _Equality, Diversity and Inclusion_ found that skinny political candidates get more votes than overweight ones. The researchers looked at the sizes of candidates from 126 primary and general elections from 2008 and 2012 and compared it to the number of votes they received. “The greater size disparity between candidates, the greater the vote share of the more slender candidate,” Michigan State professor and co-author of the study said. But while overweight men have a chance of winning an election, many overweight women don’t run at all: --- > “” --- The reason an overweight women are less likely to put their names on the ballot? [Two studies](http://time.com/99981/prettier-women-get-elected-ugly-study-finds/) published in the journal _Social Psychological and Personality Science_ last week found that the more “feminine” a female candidate looked, the more likely she was to win an election. (This was especially true in conservative states.) The same was not true of men: more masculine-looking candidates did not have an advantage over less masculine ones. The mounting evidence that women candidates are much more likely to be judged by their looks is certainly depressing, especially if it is deterring capable women from deciding to run. Overweight Woman Will Not Win Elections, Study Says ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/106145/how-a-female-political-candidates-looks-affect-her-ability-to-win/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/106145/how-a-female-political-candidates-looks-affect-her-ability-to-win/"},"headline":"How a Female Political Candidate's Looks Affect Her Ability to Win","datePublished":"2014-05-20T17:33:56.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:55:20.016Z","description":"Overweight men get fewer votes than their slim counterparts. Overweight women don't both running at all.","url":"https://time.com/106145/how-a-female-political-candidates-looks-affect-her-ability-to-win/","keywords":["Living","Hillary Clinton","women","politics","Sarah Palin"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24531710af40702f/69869036361760329f90c1a0/female-candidates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24531710af40702f/69869036361760329f90c1a0/female-candidates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"The legs of five women members of the U.S. House of Representatives are seen during the opening session of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012.","caption":"The legs of five women members of the U.S. House of Representatives are seen during the opening session of the 2012 Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina in 2012.","creditText":"Rick Wilking—Reuters","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/106145/how-a-female-political-candidates-looks-affect-her-ability-to-win/","name":"How a Female Political Candidate's Looks Affect Her Ability to Win"}}]}] ```