The unexpected factor that’s drastically improving women’s employment rates right now isn’t education or DEI initiatives — it’s GLP-1 drugs

In a 2026 working paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research, Harvard economist Rebecca Diamond found that women who were unemployed when they began taking GLP-1 medications saw a change 18 months later.

Their employment rate rose by nearly 27 percentage points compared with women who wanted to take the medications but had not yet started – a gap larger than the employment difference between American women with a high school diploma and those with a university degree.

The research does not suggest that losing weight made these women smarter, more capable or better qualified for work. Instead, it raises questions about whether changes in appearance may affect how women are perceived by employers.

The financial cost of weight bias

GLP-1 medications have quickly become a popular weight-loss tool. In 2026, 11% of U.S. adults said they were currently taking one to lose weight, up from just 3% in 2024, according to Gallup.

But long before GLP-1s became part of the cultural conversation, research suggested weight was already influencing how women were perceived in the workplace.

A report from Fairygodboss, an employer review site for women, offered a particularly troubling look at how appearance can shape hiring decisions. In one study, hiring professionals were shown images of women with different body types and asked to evaluate them.

The heaviest-looking woman was judged much more harshly. Twenty percent of respondents described her as “lazy,” a label applied less frequently to every other woman pictured. Just 18% said she appeared to have leadership potential, while 21% described her as “unprofessional.”

What the data shows

Diamond looked at survey data from about 15,000 people. She compared women who started taking GLP-1 medications with similar women who wanted to take them but had not started yet. The groups were matched based on factors such as income, race, body mass index and overall health.

The study found changes in women’s personal lives, too. Single women taking GLP-1s were nearly 29 percentage points more likely to get married or move in with a partner than similar women who had not started the medications.

The findings also add to years of research suggesting that body weight can influence how women are treated financially.

In 2011, the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis cited research finding that overweight white women earned about 4.5% less than white women whose BMI fell within what researchers classified as the normal range. White women with obesity earned nearly 12% less.

Those figures were specific to white women and do not apply to everyone. They also do not show that body size determines someone’s value or ability. Rather, they suggest weight-related bias was showing up in some women’s pay long before GLP-1 medications became popular.

When pretty privilege pays

Codie Sanchez, CEO and founder of Contrarian Thinking, has said women who wear makeup to work earn about 30% more on average than women who don’t.

“Pretty privilege is very real,” she said on an episode of The Burnouts Podcast. “And you can either say ‘That’s not fair, so I’m not doing it.’ or you can win.”