Aim: In our affluent society slimness means
fitness and attractiveness, but also success
and drive to achieve. In order to keep a slim
body over a long time, the eating behaviour
of many female executives must be geared
permanently to losing weight or avoiding
weight gain. An important means of achieving
this is restrained eating. It was the aim of
our present study to reinforce this hypothesis
which we established in our precursor study.
Test Subjects and Method: To this end we
designed a questionnaire which we sent by
email to the 300 German women in leading
positions (top and middle management) involved
in our precursor study in 2006. 124
female managers were willing to take part
again. The present questionnaire contained
a mix of open and closed questions. Eight
of the 50 questions were about nutrition
and health. In these questions we asked
the managers about stereotype attitudes to
slimness and career, about their satisfaction
with their present body weight and about
the kinds of eating behaviour they use to
keep to their idea of an ideal body weight.
Furthermore, we asked the women whether
they see themselves as role models for their
colleagues in matters of health.
Results: As in our precursor study, most of
the female executives had a body mass index
in the low and middle normal range. Most
of them said that outward appearance and
body shape are more important for women
who want to reach a leading position than
they are for men, and that here a slim, athletic
body stands for vitality, high performance
and success. The maintenance of a slim body
over a long period of time is seen by female
managers as a challenge which they aim to
meet. To attain this ideal, most of the women
make use of nutrition behaviour which we
can call restrained eating. They see themselves
as role models for the employees they
are responsible for, also in health matters.
Conclusions: In this situation it is conceivable
that the women may not only become
mentally disturbed but also expect too much
of themselves and develop psychosomatic
stress diseases. That is why an important early
preventive measure should involve especially
education about nutrition and stress prevention.
Furthermore it would make sense to ask
fundamental questions about the roles of
managers in workplace health promotion, especially
with respect to the role model function
wanted by employers and social systems.
