As a fat woman, I represent a population that has not yet been recognized in diversity and inclusion (D&I) initiatives that continue to make headlines.

In the venture capital community, 900 founders recently committed publicly to making the diversity of their investors an important factor in their decision to accept capital. From a policy standpoint, California became the first state to enact legislation that requires publicly traded companies to have at least one woman on their board of directors by the end of 2019. Government and the business community are clearly putting their money where their mouth is.

Many companies have even overhauled their recruitment, hiring, and retention strategies to be more inclusive. In the last two years, job postings for diversity and inclusion positions increased by nearly 20%. Yet it continues to get harder to find good talent. Over half (56%) of employers surveyed by LinkedIn stated they believe they are missing out on talent due to discrimination against people because of their weight. You would think that companies would want to employ strategies to combat weight bias so they can hire the best people.

However, larger-bodied people are still overlooked for jobs because people tend to assume that due to our size, we are lazy. A 2017 survey from Fairygodboss found that when 500 hiring professionals were shown a picture of a larger-bodied woman, only 15.6% of them said they would hire her. Twenty percent characterized the woman as lazy. An older study found that biased workers viewed larger-bodied people as less competent.

So, despite surviving one of the most competitive high schools in the country and graduating from one of the top undergraduate business schools in the world, I am doomed to be judged by my appearance.

I am also aware that, since weight discrimination is legal in 48 states (Michigan and Washington are exceptions), fat people won’t have much of a case if we decide to take a current or potential employer to court for discriminating against us due to our weight.

Getting hired is just the first obstacle. Fat professional women will likely be paid less than women who are considered traditionally thin. According to some estimates, “heavy” or “very heavy” women could be paid from $9,000 to $19,000 less per year and almost $22,000 less annually than women who are considered really thin.