Laura often quips: "Looks don't matter, except when they do, which is nearly always".

We all have a sense that people who are conventionally attractive catch more breaks then people who are plain, and this is likely more true for women than for men. But how much does this matter for trans women, who are more likely than natal women (and non-trans men) to be unemployed and in poverty.

Taryn Eames, a PhD candidate in economics at the University of Toronto, sought to find out why. Are trans women less employable, or are they being discriminated against by employers? And how is this effected by their passability -- their ability to be interpreted as though they were natally female.

To analyze if this was due to hiring discrimination, she sent out 10000 fake resumes to potential employers across Germany, The only details that they changes was that in some, the employee revealed a trans history, and in some, the employee was presumed to be a natal female.

In addition, in half the resumes she included a picture that appeared classily female, and in the other half, the picture was masculinized to look trans. She discovered that employers gave a positive response 9% less often if the employee revealed a trans history but "passed" as female, but 32% less often if she did not pass, showing that trans women who do not pass are significantly penalized when job hunting.

With Yvette away sick, Laura and Taryn discuss this research, try to tease out differences between attractiveness and passability and discuss if this is a problem that can (or should be) remedied.