Perhaps the more attractive a person is the more experience they have in socializing and making a lasting impression compared to a more unattractive rival. Attractive people tend to be more outgoing because of the fact that throughout their lives people have been more prone to seek them out. Also this article fails to recognize that many studies have shown correlation between attractiveness and intelligence. This article is just one of many that points out that being attractive inst just looks
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-scientific-fundament... Also many women are not in senior leadership positions simply because less women have the desire to be in those positions. You can blame it on our culture but many younger women want their husbands to be able to take care of them and feel that they should not have to take up higher positions. The real reason women do not hold as much as a grasp is that many women don't truly want it, similar to the failing of the equal rights amendment.
I think that even though you make a good point about attractiveness being correlated with intelligence, having a bias towards being attractive is equally as bad as a bias towards rich people. Sure, rich people are typically smarter, because they get better education. But ideally we should be choosing employees based on the abilities, rather than things that could be indicative of their abilities. And I don't think employers hire attractive women because they are more intelligent. They hire them because they are attractive, which is the problem the article points out.