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The Cutting Edge of Employment Diversity:
Transgender Human Resources
Policies in
Full text
version. Click here to view
my dissertation, "The Cutting Edge of Employment Diversity: Transgender
Human Resources Policies in U.S. Employers.
For those of you without time or patience for 2MB and 200-odd pages, an
introduction follows. For a blog on the
subject, see Transgender Workplace
Diversity.
Introduction: Why Gender “Identity”?
The most recent trend in equal employment policy is the protection of “gender identity.” In other words, if an employee changes gender, they won't be fired or disciplined, but will continue to be judged on job performance like any other employee. More than 200 employers, over 50 of them Fortune 500, have adopted such policies in the last few years. What makes this a particularly interesting phenomenon is the fact that the transsexual population is extremely small, perhaps 0.002%. The concepts and identities involved are “gooey,” that is, they are ambiguous and changing, creating policy headaches. Is altruism driving the policy? Is it political correctness? Or is it a serious business concern?
I conducted
intensive interviews with 43 officials and employees who were involved with the
adoption of the policies at 33 organizations.
My research suggest that it is, indeed,
“serious business,” but for reasons having little to do with trangender
employees. It’s also something that every forward-thinking employer is
starting to address, and my consulting practice is finding a ready reception in
those quarters. One of the most undervalued social forces is changing
Meanwhile, those
of us now living in the path of the glacier are not so concerned with where the
glacier is going to be in 95 years. Rather, we need to be well in front
of where it is now, and watch out for earthquakes, landslides and avalanches
instead. The causes and effects deemed most significant in our
great-grandchildren’s history books will likely be different from those we
consider most signficant now. What my research shows is that the rise in
transgender human resources policies may be one of the many effects of these
changing demographics. I’m not talking about a surge in numbers of the
The people to whom I spoke repeatedly indicated the reason for policy adoption was a “business case” – it’s good for business. At first I was skeptical, but after seeing one long, involved torturous policy adoption process after another, I realized they wouldn’t spend so much time and effort on it unless they were serious. After looking into it, I learned that demographic projections indicate that there may be more jobs than candidates in the next decade, particularly jobs requiring a college education. In 2012, 40% of 22 year olds will be racial and ethnic minorities. Employers that can attract top minority candidates will win the talent war, and that may mean the difference between profitability and bankruptcy. There are a number of factors that may change this scenario, but employers are acting as if it’s already happening. They want to be well in front of that glacier and the time to start is now, not when it appears in the corporate cafeteria.
Every employer nowadays has a non-discrimination policy on race and ethnicity, so that is no mark of distinction. When minorities with top marks in college go looking for employers that they feel comfortable with, other things will start to loom large. One of these is transgender policy. Employers with such policies are talking to minority candidates: “We take care of everybody, even this tiny socially disfavored group. They can be themselves here, and so can you. You’ll feel more comfortable here.” They may not have any openly transgender employees (few do), be somewhat unsure of what transgender means (most are clueless), or deal poorly with the issues of transgender employees (hey fella, what do you mean you want to use the women’s bathroom??), but they are certainly well out in front of the glacier. Hopefully, by the time that glacier arrives, they will have dealt with the real “cutting edge” of workplace diversity: the need for resources on an organizational level to combat discriminatory norms. The rest of us should break out the long underwear – it may be a chilly century.
If you’d like to read more specifics, click here for the 2 page Dissertation Chapter Summary,
Updates. Here’s some interesting news. The New York Times
recently published an article entitled “Coming Soon: The Vanishing Work
Force.” One of its conclusions is
similar to that of my demographic research: there may not be enough young
workers to go around in the not-too-distant future, causing companies to
scramble to get the edge in recruitment. "This is a sleeper issue,"
said Charles E. M. Kolb, president of the Committee for Economic Development, a
group of business and education leaders that conducts policy research in
One
of the respondents from the study sent me the following email. It epitomizes what the research shows: transgender identity is unprotected when it
publicly violates heterosexual norms.
“I'm in the
midst of a battle with my own management. They're a little annoyed with my
crossdressing while on business trips and during company events, as well as
with me sharing information about my involvement in the transgender community.
So much so that I've been accused of misconduct and insubordination. They can't
fire me for wearing a skirt, but they can fire me for not doing what the boss
asks me to do (or not to do.) They have
asked me if I'd consider presenting my female side all the time. Then the
misconduct stuff goes away. (But, so may my 26 year marriage.)”
Another
employee at a large company made the following comment about this study: “For those of us who have transitioned on
the job, it hits very close to home.”