Transgender workers and their discrimination, unemployment, and harassment
Transgender workers are at high risk of unemployment, discrimination, and sexual harassment. The topic of mistreatment towards transgender workers is an important issue because of the mistreatment and inequality that transgender workers have to face, which no other group should have to face.
There are approximately 1.6–2 million transgender individuals, and of that group, there are approximately 1.3 million working transgender adults. Within the 1.3 million adult transgender adults, it is more than twice as likely for transgender workers to be unemployed than cis-gendered adults, and cis-gendered adults tend to make 32% more money a year than transgender workers, even when both groups have the same or higher education levels. The mistreatment of transgender workers has also extended to more than half of transgender workers admitting that they do not feel comfortable being out in their work, with even two-thirds of transgender workers not feeling comfortable letting others know of their transition in professional interactions outside their own companies.
Though transgender individuals and groups have appeared in American history as early as the 1800s in some Native American tribes as a third gender, transgender groups only really started to get support from organizations in the 1970s and 1980s for cross-dressing men, and in an activism event to march on Washington for lesbian and gay rights that saw anywhere from 75,000 to 125,000 transgender people march with them. The fight to be recognized and accepted by the public was a hard-fought battle with many losses, including the dissolution of the first transexual advocacy groups, including the NTCU, and the loss of support from gay and feminist groups in the 1970s.
Thanks to decades of transgender groups fighting to be given equal rights, major amounts of groundwork were put in place, such as in the landmark Supreme Court case Bostock v. Clayton County, which was decided on June 15, 2020, and clarified that federal law prohibits anti-transgender discrimination in employment. Some ways we could further the acceptance of transgender groups and workers in the workplace would be to have a zero tolerance towards the harassment or belittlement of transgender employees’ and to further change people’s views on transgender groups from harmful views by fixing misconceptions that may have been given to said people through workplace meetings or team exercises. These misconceptions tend to be harmful or bigoted with people, then not viewing transgender people as healthy-minded or as brainwashed, when in fact these thoughts are unfounded and untrue, with transgender groups having the same capacity for higher education and intelligence as everybody else.
With the further acceptance of transgender people and groups and the continued push for transgender policies that are still in circulation and others to come, I believe that transgender workers will be in a happier state of mind and working conditions to have better productivity with their coworkers and jobs, who won’t judge or harass them but will help and succeed with them.
Work Sources.
NCTE. (2024). EMPLOYMENT (GENERAL). NCTE.
https://transequality.org/know-your-rights/employment-general
Wikipedia. (April 16, 2024). Transgender history in the United States. Wikipedia.
Baboolall, David, et al. (2024). Being transgender at work. McKinsey & Company.
https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/diversity-and-inclusion/being-transgender-at-work
Herman, Jody L., et al. (June 2022). How Many Adults and Youth Identify as Transgender in the United States?.
https://williamsinstitute.law.ucla.edu/publications/trans-adults-united-states/
Medina, Caroline, et al. (June 1, 2022). Fact Sheet: LGBT Workers in the Labor Market.
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/fact-sheet-lgbt-workers-in-the-labor-market/
