The Institute for Diversity Science at the University of Wisconsin published a study in September that shows gender minorities experience higher rates of “gender hostility” in the workplace compared to their cisgender counterparts, according to a report from IDS.
The study was conducted by IDS affiliate and UW professor Chloe Grace Hart and UW sociology graduate student Mariana Nozela Prado.
Hart has done research on sexual harassment and observed that there was a lack of research on the sexual harassment of minorities in the workplace, Nozela Prado said. There were some studies conducted in educational environments, such as campus climate surveys, but there have not been any systematic efforts to collect data focused on the experiences of gender minorities, Nozela Prado said.
Hart did more targeted sampling, reaching out to gender minorities in particular for the study, so the sample is not randomized or population representative, Nozela Prado said. But, the study included a cisgender sample to examine comparisons and parallels and included responses from individuals in different parts of the country, according to Nozela Prado.
“To our knowledge, this is the largest sample of gender minorities, including trans men, trans women and nonbinary individuals [in this type of study],” Nozela Prado said.
Nozela Prado analyzed much of the qualitative data that was gathered, according to IDS. The analysis found that gender minorities experienced workplace harassment at an extremely high rate, with over 80% of transgender and nonbinary individuals in the survey reporting encountering at least one form of gender hostility, according to UW IDS.
The study additionally uncovered three previously unrecognized patterns of gender hostility, including gender objectification, gender invalidation including misgendering and derogation of the LGBTQ+ community, according to IDS. The study identifies gender objectification as behaviors treating transgender and nonbinary individuals as objects of scorn, curiosity or denigration, and identifies derogation as actions that portray queer identities as deviant or unnatural.
OutReach LGBTQ+ Community Center, has a fair amount of transgender clients who have regularly reported facing harassment in public, and it is an ongoing issue, according to executive director Steve Starkey.
“It has really ramped up because of the current administration,” Starkey said. “That administration has been attacking transgender people for almost a year. And I think that kind of encourages people to also abuse trans people.”
Part of the way gender hostility was measured and observed in the study was through an adapted version of the sexual experiences questionnaire that is widely used to measure sexual harassment, Nozela Prado said. The survey instrument is well recognized and validated due to its association with cisgender experiences, Nozela Prado said.
One aspect of gender hostility they examined was judgment on a person’s level of masculinity or femininity, and they found that gender minorities in the sample are particularly likely to report experiencing those, Nozela Prado said.
“Those dynamics we found, like our particular types of gender invalidation, I do think that is something that happens more widespreadly than people realize,” Nozela Prado said. “I don’t think that we are at a point as a culture where people really conceptualize misgendering as a form of harassment.”
Nozela Prado said she has both hopes and skepticism about the societal outcome of the research. She joined academia to uncover issues like these and hopes people will understand the impact. But, she is doubtful of the incentives that workplaces have to adopt more comprehensive perspectives of sexual harassment.
“More progressive places like Madison may have more room to acknowledge that and put forward more initiatives to focus on that, but we are in a conservative moment culturally, where I think that there is resistance to some of the topics that we bring up,” Nozela Prado said.
These mixed sentiments about the study are largely shared by Starkey, who believes the IDS study is valuable for people who already have an affinity and support for the LGBTQ+ community.
Starkey has been the executive director of the Centerlink LGBTQ+ support organization in south central Wisconsin for almost 20 years and has been active in LGBTQ+ social services throughout his career.
OutReach does a lot of referrals to legal and social services for trans people due to its staffing size, Starkey said.
Companies who want to have a good start on inclusion and be more supportive of trans people can put personnel policies in place that protect transgender or LGBTQ+ people in the workplace, Starkey said.
“One reason to do that is that our community has a lot of talent and a lot to offer, so if we are excluded from the workplace, it actually hurts businesses and corporations,” Starkey said.
