Does Height REALLY Impact Career Success? | What It's Like Being A Tall Woman In The Workplace

Tell people are more likely to make more money and be successful in their careers. That's what we've been told pretty much most of our lives. I mean, there are studies and real life experiences to prove it. However, what really isn't touched upon when it comes to height in the workplace is how it affects tall men and tall women differently. Hype is perceived as masculine, so taller men experience many of the benefits like more respect and more likely to get a promotion, more likely to get a higher salary, et cetera, considering that they're you know, actually competent and qualified for the position or the higher salary. But for tall women it's a bit of a hit or miss. While we do experience some of the benefits like respect and so forth, we may also attract microaggressions and unwanted comment slash treatment. So today we're going to dive into what is like being a tall woman in the professional world, the good, the bad, and the ugly. So let's get into it. Good morning, everybody. You are listening to a tall girl's podcast hosted by a tall girl named India. I hope everyone who's tuning in today is doing super fantastic. Before I get into this episode, I do want to say, make sure you're following me on my socials out a Tall Girls podcast on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, so that you could stay out today on all of the latest podcast episodes and catch a glimpse of my everyday life. Also, feel free toly me review and let me know how tall you are. I'm genuinely curious. I also have a monthly newsletter, make sure you subscribe to that. Everything is going to be linked in the description. I just want to say early on into this episode, I apologize in advance if my voice sounds kind of kind of crazy. I did do some karaoke last night. I did do my due diligence. Oh say that five times class and drink some tea. I drink some tumoric ginger tea. I drink a bunch of warm water last night before I went to bed, and then also this morning when I woke up, so that my vocals can be like a bit better. I think it's like pretty good, though, like at first when I okay, I woke up in the middle of the night five am, and I guess you could say I try to talk. I don't know why. Sometimes I just talk out loud to myself. I had no voice. I had no voice at five am this morning. I was a bit concerned. But here we are a couple hours later. My voice is back, so let's hope that it stays that way. Anyways, back to this episode, I stumbled across a couple TikTok videos that showcase tall women in the workplace. So it was a tall girl, and then it'll be the text on the screen will be something like me at work or me at the workplace, and then it will cut to a couple screenshots of stock images of people with comments where they say, oh do you play basketball, Oh, I wish I was as tall as you, et cetera. I thought it was funny, like it was a joke. But as I kept scrolling, I guess the algorithm picked up on what I was looking at, and I came across this video. So let's play that really quickly. Something that I ever see this say, I am a six foot tall girl. I understand that's really tall for a woman, but I literally was just at a work meeting with this man, never met him. I walk in the first thing that comes out of his mouth is wow, you were way taller than I expect it. And I'm like, okay, maybe let's not comment on my body like the first time you ever meet me. And number two, I get that it's like a compliment to be tall. Yeah that's great. Like imagine I locked in and I was like, wow, you are so much shorter than I expected. That's so crazy. Like moral of the story here, let's not comment on someone's parents the first time you meet them. Tall, short, fat, skinny, I don't care, Like, maybe keep it to yourself. So after watching that, I was like, oh, we're being for real, Like people actually make comments about your height like that in the professional setting, like in the workplace, And honestly, I didn't really know what to believe because I work remotely, like I'm a freelancer. I'm a freelance marketer. I literally go into some type of off quote unquote office setting once a week and that's only been happening for the past couple of weeks, Like I just started doing that this year. So I don't really have much experience in the professional setting for me to be like, oh, yes, stuff like this actually does happen in the workplace or oh, this doesn't happen, and so forth and so on. And because of that, of course, I took my research and my questions over to basically Reddit and you guys on Instagram, and I found some very interesting themes that were also fairly common across the board, so I figured that I would share those with you guys. And you know, the point of these episodes is to just bring awareness or bring light to things that happen, to tell women in the real world in their everyday lives, and to make sure that they know that they're not alone in their experiences and that they are not crazy for thinking that stuff like this happens to them and it's like absolutely insane or they just don't like it, Like you're not the only one. That's ultimately what I want to say to tell women watching this right now, You're not the only one who's experiencing these things. So over on my Instagram, I did ask how being a tall women affected your professional life, especially in comparison to tall men. I also asked for their experiences and you know, instances of how people treated them, et cetera, because we hear it all the time. Tell people make more money, tall people are more successful in their careers. Tall people have it easier, and by tell people they mean tall men. Let's keep it real, because it seems like for tall women the experience may be a little different. And if you have anything to share, let me know in the comments. One of the common themes regarding being tall as a woman in their professional lives and being in the workplace is the intimidation factor. But I mean, I feel like that's pretty standard for tall women. It's just like in general, some people find us to be intimidating. Just listen to this example really quickly. On the weekend, I was at a party and a gentlemen came to me and said that, as I'm standing there dancing, a lot of men are just not coming and talking to me because I look very intimidating with all of my height and just standing there and anytime that, you know, I would go and I would dance and I would move whatever it may be. He's like, the guys are afraid to talk to you. Everybody's intimidating. You're just so striking and intimidating. You know. For the number of times I've heard people say a tall woman can be intimidating, I think it's I don't know, I don't get it. Many tall women find that their percy does intimidating in the workplace, and honestly, some of y'all kind of like that, I mean, being intimidating low key is a flex like what do you mean you're scared to me? Okay, let me stop. But fear does equal power, Fear does equal respect, and that's something that many of you guys actually highlighted. You guys said people are more likely to respect you and listen to what you have to say or take you seriously because of your hYP Even when I y'all said that it helps balance your gender and age, which is great in a sense because it helps us get the roles that we deserve, you know, considering that we're qualified and so forth, and just be taken seriously in general and even have success in male dominated fields. But part of me also thinks that there's a flip side to this, where because of our height, it can lead to assumptions about our personality or leadership style. We're expected to be this authoritative figure and natural born leader and be super confident and so forth. And not to say that this is a bad thing. What I'm about to say, but some of us just naturally aren't like that. Some of us just don't necessarily have that personality type. And that's okay, but it could also put a lot of pressure on our performance and just lead to really high expectations and sometimes even disappointment if those expectations aren't even met. And honestly, it can even influence negative behaviors towards us. But we'll get into that in a sec. First, let's talk about pay, because that is a major thing when it comes to tall people that we get paid more than people who are shorter than us. And I know that pay is a pretty taboo topic, like that's not something that people really talk about. They don't really put their salaries out there like that, to be honest, And that's okay. Everybody has the right to their own privacy. But more pay could potentially be one of the benefits that tall women experience. Let's just hear like a general overview of the benefits of being tall a tall person in the workplace or in your professional career. Does being taller give you an advantage in the workforce? Research indicates yes. Study in the Journal of Applied Psychology found that each additional inch of height is associated with a two to three percent increase in income, even after accounting for gender and education. The study also notes that taller individuals are more likely to be selected for leadership roles. Tight can unconsciously signal authority and competence to others, creating a cumulative advantage over time. Another study from Psychological Science suggests that taller people may develop higher self esteem positively influence their career paths. While height can offer workforce advantages, education skills and determination remain the most critical factors for long term success. On average, tall women earn more money than shorter women, as a British study reveals, and I believe that they earn at least eight thousand dollars more annually. While many tall women may experience the benefits of their height in the workplace, such as higher pay, Apparently, studies do show that men earn more money than women, meaning tall men could potentially earn more money than tall women. So y'all like to compare us to men and associate us with masculine attributes, But y'all won't pay us like men. Huh. Obviously depends on your position where you're at on the corporate ladder, your qualifications and so forth. But overall, let's say if they have the same exact position. In general, studies show that men just overall earn more money than women. It's more of a gender thing than a high thing. And of course you have the factors like education, industry, skill, and so forth, obviously, but considering all the same, a man could potentially be earning more money than a woman. That's just how it is. But seems like taller women earn more money than shorter women. All right, now that we got that out the way, let's talk about treatment in the workplace. I know that I said earlier that we get treated with more respect and people are more likely to take us seriously and so forth. But from doing research and even asking you guys over on Instagram, it turns out tall women are actually treated worse in the workplace by shorter men. The microaggressions, the unnecessary comments, the tone, and yes, I'm sure you know the tone. It's almost like they're mad at us because of their insecurities around their height. Very very sad. But I mean this really is also just like the intimidation factor in all aspects of a tall woman's life. Let's hear from a tall creator about this. And so when I say short, what I'm looking at is men five feet nine and under. A lot of these men are not easy to be around, they're not easy to date. They're very angry, and they do project their anger onto us. They are very insecure about their height, and they may not have smoke for the over six foot men that's been picking on them their whole life, but they got that smoke for us. And I think that is a reason why a lot of women prefer to date men over six feet because of the confidence issue and not wanting to deal with the insecurity and the anger and the bitterness that comes with a lot of men who are short. So we got to consider that too. Or some of you guys over on Instagram did tell me that some of the short men had been toxic towards you because of your height, or you were even treated as a second class citizen because of it, which kind of bothers me because in situations like that, if it's not in the workplace, you could just up and leave, like let's say it's at a bar, just at a park, or just in public in general, you could just up and leave and go about your life and not have to sit around and listen to that or deal with that. But it's in the workplace. You can't just up and leave, Like you need a job to make money to you know, pay rent and exist in this society at least. But I feel like just putting up with that constantly, dealing with it constantly, you can get annoying and stressful at times, and can honestly make working at your workplace, which you're at for much of the day, just be so so stressful and such a drag, like you don't want to go there and deal with that, And it's like weird because I don't know, don't y'all have other things to worry about besides my height? Like hello? And in the context of what I've spoken about this for pretty much most of this episode, it was more so in the context of having office jobs or corporate jobs, pretty standard types of jobs that people think about when they think about jobs, or like a nine to five or just being in the professional world. But what about other types of jobs, like, for example, we know about modeling and highism and modeling, and how if you're above like six foot or above five eleven, A lot of agencies don't necessarily want to take you. They have a high range of like five eight to five eleven. That's the ideal hype for them. But something interesting that I came across is there's actually a girl, a tall woman, a tall girl in theater who brought up a very interesting point. She said that if someone is shorter than her and is as good as her for the role they're auditioning for, I'm assuming they almost always get the part, And especially in an ensemble where it makes sense in choreography for people to be around the same hype, they'll likely cast people who are on the shorter side because the majority of people are shorter, and they're gonna want people who are around the same height so that it looks uniform, which makes sense, of course, but I feel like there's more so a thing of uniformity rather than actually like, oh, you're tall, Like no, like we don't want any tall women. And she also brought up the idea of love interest, so back to the idea that the person who is the feminine one in the relationship is supposed to be shorter. That could be a bit tricky too, because you know, it does depend on the director everybody has different thoughts or ideas about that. But she also brought up the fact that, yeah, and let's say, if she's playing the role of a love interest to I guess maybe a man, assuming that it's like a heterosexual type of relationship, they're gonna opt for the person who is shorter than the male person that they want to cast, if that makes sense. So basically in the show, they're gonna want the guide to be taller than the woman when they're playing, you know, the relationship or whatever. So it's very interesting to see how height plays a role in, you know, how they're cast in theater and so forth. And of course we have other types of jobs where it's like fitness or being outdoors or whatever, where height honestly doesn't really matter. As long as you're physically capable of doing the job, then no one cares about your height. I'm assuming, but I want to bring it back to you guys. I want to ask you, guys, as tall women, has your height affected your career choices? Has your height affected how people treat you at your job? It's no secret that he plays a role in your professional life, But I think as tall women, we have a lot of you experiences that aren't really spoken about it. Did run a poll or run on Instagram, and I'm gonna plug my Instagram here follow me at a toll Girl's podcast to participate in these polls and have your opinions heard on these episodes. But I did ask you, guys, do you think being tall has helped or hurt you in your career slash professional life? Thirty percent said honestly, it helped, five percent said low key it hurt, thirty percent said a bit of both, and thirty five percent said no difference. It's literally tied, it's practically tied with it helped, a bit of both and no difference. But it seems like it's more on the positive side where it did help in some way or it made no difference, where it's like, Okay, my other qualifications and skills and my education and so forth ultimately played a role in my career. So at least it's good to know that it didn't hurt a lot of your A lot of you guys, is a lot of you guys' professional lives, careers or anything. But five percent still it like hurt their career or whatever. It's pretty messed up. And I'm Loky, sorry about that. And yeah, anyways, definitely let me know your thoughts in the comments, and thank you for listening to this episode. I really appreciate it, and I appreciate you as always. Feel free to hit me up on my socials and let me know your thoughts and you can even answer the question that I just asked. And ultimately, like I said before, it's to help tall women feel like you know, you are not alone and you are not crazy for experiencing these things. This happens to a lot of us. And until then, I'll catch you all in the next one. Good night and goodbye, Loky. Sorry for the shorter outro. It is just that my throat really hurts and I want arrested. Okay, bye,