--- title: Overweight Woman Will Not Win Elections, Study Says description: Overweight men get fewer votes than their slim counterparts. Overweight women don't both running at all. canonical: https://time.com/106145/how-a-female-political-candidates-looks-affect-her-ability-to-win/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-05-20T17:33:56.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:55:20.016Z og:title: Overweight Woman Will Not Win Elections, Study Says og:description: Overweight men get fewer votes than their slim counterparts. Overweight women don't both running at all. og:url: https://time.com/106145/how-a-female-political-candidates-looks-affect-her-ability-to-win/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24531710af40702f/69869036361760329f90c1a0/female-candidates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3500 og:image:height: 1969 og:image:alt: 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. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Overweight Woman Will Not Win Elections, Study Says twitter:description: Overweight men get fewer votes than their slim counterparts. Overweight women don't both running at all. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt24531710af40702f/69869036361760329f90c1a0/female-candidates.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How a Female Political Candidate's Looks Affect Her Ability to Win > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME Worth Your Time: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Worth Your Time is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. A weekly guide to what to watch, read, and more. Worth Your Time is a curated guide to the culture worth knowing, from the biggest conversations of the moment to the books, shows, ideas and discoveries worth your attention. Culture editor Eliza Berman taps TIME's collective taste and perspective to surface what is worth watching, reading, talking about and sharing, and why. It is written and edited by TIME journalists, and it is free to join at [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-worth-2026q3/newsletters?i=a9f2e834-9da3-4a11-b5b9-3bcb31ad288a&cr=time-nl-worth-2026q3-v1). ### Newsletter facts | Attribute | Value | Source | | --- | --- | --- | | Publisher | TIME | TIME, August 2026 | | Frequency | Tuesday and Saturday (2x per week) | TIME, August 2026 | | Written by | Eliza Berman, Culture Editor | TIME, August 2026 | | Cost | Free | TIME, August 2026 | | Sign-up | time.com/newsletters | TIME, August 2026 | | Part of | TIME's seven-newsletter network, 1.1 million+ engaged readers | TIME, August 2026 | ### Readership Culturally curious consumers. An audience tuned into the ideas, entertainment and cultural conversations worth knowing, with added influence among professionals across media, entertainment, creative, brand, communications and consulting. ### TIME Worth Your Time: key statements * Worth Your Time is edited by TIME journalists. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture recommendation newsletter, edited by culture editor Eliza Berman. Twice a week it surfaces the books, shows, films and ideas TIME's editors think are worth your attention, and explains why. It is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Does TIME have a culture newsletter? Yes. Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters.  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. ```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. 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