FINAL 72 HOURS
Running Head : TRANSGENDER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 1
TRANSGENDER DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION 2
Transgender Diversity and Inclusion
January 31, 2021
Transgender Diversity and Inclusion
Everyday transgender people face barriers at the workplace that make their jobs harder than it needs to be (Davidson, 2016). For most people, work is usually stressful. The act of carrying around the emotional weight of having to deny or suppress one’s gender identity because of challenges at the workplace is just too much to bear. Therefore, the focus on diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace is paramount. The focus on how to appreciate the diversity of employees in a workplace and implement inclusive strategies is essential in preventing discrimination, stigma, hostility, and pressure towards transgender employees.
This paper will address some of the reasons why transgender discrimination persists, ways through which diversity and inclusion of transgender employees can be achieved, and the benefits of doing so. The paper will focus on addressing the aspects of how true inclusion of transgender employees is not just about creating diversity in the workplace, but also providing a ground for equality. Equality in this context refers to equal treatment when it comes to opportunities, benefits, and every experiences. The discussion will draw support from several peer reviewed articles that have addressed the issues in detail and provide in text citations and references of the same.
Why Transgender Discrimination Persists in the Workplace
Transgender people usually face a lot of stigma and discrimination at the workplace because of how people are originally socialized to perceive and enact gender (McFadden &Crowley-Henry, 2016). Scholarly research has shown that the behavior about gender is usually learned. For example, when children are young, girls and boys are trained to portray distinct behavior in terms of gender. Due to this socialization roots, gender norms provide the most basic framework for definition of selves in people. This is carried on to the workplace.
The society generally recognizes two genders: male and female, as the primary genders. This means that people belonging to the transgender group have a difficult time fitting in. The transgender group faces barriers fitting in because the perceptions of gender are widely shared and deeply rooted. People belonging to the two primary genders tend to mistreat those in the transgender group as they view them as different from them. This leads to issues like stigmatization and discrimination at the workplace. The transgender employees must adopt other means to avoid the discrimination, like hiding their gender, getting used to the hostility, or quitting their jobs.
A survey done in 2015 showed that 77 percent of transgender employees admitted to adopting the above techniques at their workplaces (Robinson, 2014). The survey showed that the transgender employees confessed to having troubles with the lack of appreciation of diversity and inclusion, such as psychological trauma. The survey reported that 67 percent of the transgender employees reported facing negative outcomes every time they identified themselves with their true gender identity at work (Robinson, 2014). Some of the negative outcomes included being fired, being forced to resign, failure of being hired, or denial of promotion of opportunities. By focusing on the diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace, these problems can be solved successfully.
Facilitate Successful Diversity and Inclusion of Transgender Employees at the Workplace
Several approaches can be undertaken to ensure appropriate diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace programs are implemented. One such approach is getting proactive on pronouns (McFadden &Crowley-Henry, 2016). To many people, introducing oneself using gender pronouns may seem unnecessary. However, it may be necessary after all because one’s gender should not just be assumed by appearance. Showing the appreciation of diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace involves using and respecting their appropriate gender pronouns.
Doing a policy check on issues of gender is also a key factor in ensuring diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace. Every organization has a set of policies that protect the employees against vices like discrimination and harassment. Checking to confirm that the policies include a section for gender and expression is essential in the management of diversity and inclusion of transgender employees (Phillip & Soumyaja, 2019). It is important to make sure that all employees that every person of every gender at the workplace should be valued and accorded the same respect as everyone else.
Advocating for gender-neutral facilities at the workplace is also essential in the fight for diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace. All employees, including those belonging to the transgender group, should have access to facilities that correspond to their gender identity. For example, the restrooms are an essential facility at the workplace. Every person should be given equal access to the restroom that is appropriate to their gender. A report done in 2019 showed that more than 66 percent of Americans who are transgender avoid using public restrooms (Davidson, 2016). They do so for fear of discrimination, assault, and confrontation. The approach described above can help to solve this problem.
Adjusting biased recruitment and hiring is also another way of implementing successful diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace. It is reported that unemployment among the transgender community is three times greater compared to the whole United States’ unemployment rate (Davidson, 2016). When organizations become open to hiring and recruiting members from the transgender group, they will be opening their workplaces to gender diversity. This action will spearhead the acceptance of transgender employees as equals at the workplace and oversee their inclusion in the workplace.
Benefits of Successful Diversity and Inclusion of Transgender Employees at the Workplace
By acknowledging and putting in place measures to address diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace, the organizations will be inspiring a more productive workplace (Robinson, 2014). The challenges faced by transgender employees at the workplace make it difficult for them to reach their full potential of productivity at the workplace. Therefore, if these barriers were removes, the transgender employees would have a chance of performing even better at their duties. Additionally, by failing to recruit transgender employees, the organizations could be ignoring people with top notch skills because of their gender issues.
Ensuring a diverse and inclusive environment for transgender employees also develops a healthy working environment for everyone (Phillip & Soumyaja, 2019). Healthy working environments do not have issues like harassment and discrimination like those witnesses in those against transgender employees as discussed above. By providing equality regardless of gender, the organizational workplace environment will be healthy and in turn, performance and productivity will be witnessed. This will also confirm that the workplace operates according to the ethical values advocated for in organizations. All these factors will be instrumental in providing job satisfaction to every employee at the workplace which will inspire better achievement of organizational goals.
Conclusion
The issue of lack of diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace is one that should be addressed because it houses so many vices in it. Some of the vices include stigma, discrimination, and unfairness, and harassment. In the discussion above, the causes of persistence of the problem have been addressed and several solutions have been provided. The solutions can be implemented to ensure diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace is achieved. Ensuring diversity and inclusion of transgender employees at the workplace is essential because it offers various benefits as discussed above.
References
Collins, J. C., McFadden, C., Rocco, T. S., & Mathis, M. K. (2015). The problem of transgender marginalization and exclusion: Critical actions for human resource development. Human Resource Development Review, 14(2), 205-226.
Davidson, S. (2016). Gender inequality: Nonbinary transgender people in the workplace. Cogent Social Sciences, 2(1), 1236511.
Köllen, T. (2016). Intersexuality and trans-identities within the diversity management discourse. In Sexual orientation and transgender issues in organizations (pp. 1-20). Springer, Cham.
Philip, J., & Soumyaja, D. (2019). Workplace diversity and inclusion: policies and best practices for organisations employing transgender people. International Journal of Public Policy, 15(3-4), 299-314.
Robinson, M. J. (2014). Transgender inclusion in the workplace (Doctoral dissertation, Cleveland State University).