Queer Representation at Work: A Worthy Challenge to Heteronormativity
At TimeTravlr, we’ve written a bit about workplace discrimination in the United States in recent months. We suggested broad steps toward gender parity on the job, and we wondered how the entertainment industry might address its own toxic masculinity and the #MeToo movement leading up to the Oscars ceremony. In this piece, we’ll continue digging into the deep layers of workplace discrimination, this time analyzing how queer representation is not only good for business, but potentially transformative in terms of flipping traditional gender roles and norms (which so often play into harassment, mistreatment, and denial of opportunity) on their heads.
According to the Movement Advancement Project, around 50% of the LGBTQ population in the United States live in states where they’re protected, by explicit law, from workplace discrimination based on both sexual orientation and gender identity.
This means, of course, that the other half live in states where there’s far too much gray area, and where law professionals depend on oftentimes controversial interpretations of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act to determine how to address issues that arise (if they’re even reported to begin with).
This often breeds a culture of uncertainty, fear, and ultimately, a continuation of the secrecy that’s been required of many queer people for much, if not all, of their lives. The idea of being openly out at work in an unprotected environment is just too risky when it comes to income and survival. Keeping such a secret is far easier for those in the queer community who are not visibly queer and who can “pass” as straight and/or cisgender when the need or desire arises. For those who are more queer-presenting, there’s even greater risk of being harrassed, fired, or not hired at all. In that vein, The National Center for Transgender Equality writes that “More than one in four transgender people have lost a job due to bias, and more than three-fourths have experienced some form of workplace discrimination. Refusal to hire, privacy violations, harassment, and even physical and sexual violence on the job are common occurrences, and are experienced at even higher rates by transgender people of color.”
Beyond the fact that mistreatment of staff should be a huge concern for business leaders on a human level, it can also tie directly into earnings and overall success. According to a report from GLAAD, queer staff who are openly out “are more likely to remain in their current position than the ones who are not. As a result, more effective implementation of diversity and inclusion policies would, among other things, save a significant amount of dollars spent on new talent recruitment and training.” Not to mention, increased diversity and openness in the workplace has been shown to ignite creativity and foster innovative ideas.
Queerness in the workplace is still an understudied area, as the focus of much workplace diversity research is on gender more specifically, race, and other (also very important) areas. Even so, there’s enough related research out there now to make it so many companies — even in states or cities without explicit protections — have created their own policies and practices for creating an open workplace for all and protecting employees from discrimination. However, considering that queer Americans still have to contend with the reality that approximately 1 out of 3 non-LGBT Americans feel “substantial levels of discomfort with LGBT co-workers,” it’s a wonder if such internal moves are making enough of an impact.
We believe it’s a given that companies need to strive for better internal policies related to openness, and we believe that diversity equates to positive business benefits, but we also want to take a look at how the presence of openly queer individuals at work can help push toward a genuine shift in perceptions of gender norms in the workplace.
These sorts of shifts have already occurred quite naturally in the queer home, as sociologists Maura Kelly and Elizabeth Hauck of Portland State University note in their study on how queer couples negotiate the division of housework. They “found that queer couples’ accounts of their arrangements are shaped by time availability and personal preferences as well as broader social context, such as labor force participation and citizenship. We suggest the division of domestic labor in these queer couples represents an opportunity for redoing gender through challenging normative gender roles and creating alternatives for how gender shapes social life.”
Similarly, Robert-Jay Green, founder of the Rockway Institute for Research in LGBT Psychology, was interviewed by National Public Radio back in 2014, during which he said a consistent finding at the Institute reflected that “same-sex couples tend to be much more egalitarian in their relationships. They share decision-making more equally, finances more equally, housework more equally, childcare more equally. Basically every dimension we looked at, same-sex couples are dramatically more equal in the way they function together as a couple compared to heterosexual couples.”
While we’re fully aware that not all queer folks are in (or want) relationships of this nature (and we also know that not all hetero relationships are driven solely by hetero norms!), we can use this framing to look at how heteronormativity doesn’t have to be the guiding, interpersonal and structural principle for all (whether conscious or unconscious) — and that when that norm is less prevalent, the results can be successful and satisfying.
Could this sort of egalitarian interpersonal dynamic ever translate into the workplace? Could it help to break us out of some of the power dynamics that, when turned toxic, can contribute to sexual harassment and workplace discrimination? We hope and believe so, but it will take time and serious work to undo our still-deep ties to traditional gender norms. Heteronormativity and cisgender privilege guide us all in many ways — many of which we may not consciously realize. It’s there when the man speaks up freely in a meeting, while the woman waits to be called upon after raising her hand. It’s when subtle jokes are made at the expense of the minority populations on staff and no one says anything to counter them. It’s when, after a company-wide luncheon, the women on staff are expected to clean up.
We need federal protections for all and more meaningful company diversity policies that put talk into action. A byproduct of those developments would be increased queer representation on staff and more leaders who likely have direct experience living (at least parts of) their lives without the overarching societal guidance and pressure of normative gender roles. These individuals can question long-held beliefs about on-the-job behavior, collectively reshaping gender roles to move the business forward by relying on the genuine interests and talents of all on staff.
