IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/gender/v27y2020i6p1438-1449.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Working at gender? An autoethnography

Author

Listed:
  • Saoirse Caitlin O'Shea

Abstract

In this essay I wish to explore the idea of work in relation to the arguments that trans folk ‘[claim] an illegitimate sex/gender status” in order to ‘pass” whilst cisgender people are just ‘doing gender rather than passing” it. Such a denaturalisation of our sex/gender implicitly requires that we both work at passing and that passing is our very work; a work that we are driven to, can never fulfill and that indelibly inscribes us as duplicitous, inauthentic, unnatural and monstrous. (I pronominally include myself because I am a non‐binary trans person). As a non‐binary person my work is to manage the erasure of my gender in favour of a binary choice or be undocumented and so be excluded from legal, paid employment.

Suggested Citation

  • Saoirse Caitlin O'Shea, 2020. "Working at gender? An autoethnography," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 27(6), pages 1438-1449, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:27:y:2020:i:6:p:1438-1449
    DOI: 10.1111/gwao.12513
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/gwao.12513
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/gwao.12513?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Schilt Kristen & Wiswall Matthew, 2008. "Before and After: Gender Transitions, Human Capital, and Workplace Experiences," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 8(1), pages 1-28, September.
    2. Alison Pullen & Torkild Thanem & Melissa Tyler & Louise Wallenberg & Sara Louise Muhr & Katie Rose Sullivan & Craig Rich, 2016. "Situated Transgressiveness: Exploring One Transwoman's Lived Experiences across Three Situated Contexts," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(1), pages 52-70, January.
    3. Michel Anteby, 2013. "PERSPECTIVE —Relaxing the Taboo on Telling Our Own Stories: Upholding Professional Distance and Personal Involvement," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(4), pages 1277-1290, August.
    4. Eloisio Moulin Souza & Jo Brewis & Nick Rumens, 2016. "Gender, the Body and Organization Studies: Que(e)rying Empirical Research," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 23(6), pages 600-613, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Chloé Vitry, 2021. "Queering space and organizing with Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(3), pages 935-949, May.
    2. Nick Drydakis, 2024. "Trans people, well-being, and labor market outcomes," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 386-386, January.
    3. Sharon Koppman & Elisa Mattarelli & Amar Gupta, 2016. "Third-World “Sloggers” or Elite Global Professionals? Using Organizational Toolkits to Redefine Work Identity in Information Technology Offshore Outsourcing," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 27(4), pages 825-845, August.
    4. Benjamin Cerf Harris, 2015. "Likely Transgender Individuals in U.S. Federal Administrative Records and the 2010 Census," CARRA Working Papers 2015-03, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    5. Erin A. Cech & William R. Rothwell, 2020. "LGBT Workplace Inequality in the Federal Workforce: Intersectional Processes, Organizational Contexts, and Turnover Considerations," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(1), pages 25-60, January.
    6. Emma Jeanes & Kirsty Janes, 2021. "Trans men doing gender at work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 28(4), pages 1237-1259, July.
    7. Christopher S. Carpenter & Samuel T. Eppink & Gilbert Gonzales, 2020. "Transgender Status, Gender Identity, and Socioeconomic Outcomes in the United States," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 73(3), pages 573-599, May.
    8. O'Higgins, Ciara & Andreeva, Tatiana & Goya, Nekane Aramburu, 2022. "The hows and whys of foreign operation mode combinations: The role of knowledge processes," Journal of World Business, Elsevier, vol. 57(2).
    9. Helena Liu, 2017. "Sensuality as Subversion: Doing Masculinity with Chinese Australian Professionals," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(2), pages 194-212, March.
    10. Geijtenbeek, Lydia & Plug, Erik, 2015. "Is There a Penalty for Becoming a Woman? Is There a Premium for Becoming a Man? Evidence from a Sample of Transsexual Workers," IZA Discussion Papers 9077, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    11. Geijtenbeek, Lydia & Plug, Erik, 2018. "Is there a penalty for registered women? Is there a premium for registered men? Evidence from a sample of transsexual workers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C), pages 334-347.
    12. Prasad, Ajnesh, 2014. "Corporeal ethics in an ethnographic encounter: A tale of embodiment from the Occupied Palestinian Territories," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 525-531.
    13. Enrico Fontana, 2020. "Managing diversity through transgender inclusion in developing countries: A collaborative corporate social responsibility initiative from Bangladesh," Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 27(6), pages 2548-2562, November.
    14. A Rebecca Reuber & Sophie Alkhaled & Helena Barnard & Carole Couper & Innan Sasaki, 2022. "Something borrowed, something new: Challenges in using qualitative methods to study under-researched international business phenomena," Journal of International Business Studies, Palgrave Macmillan;Academy of International Business, vol. 53(9), pages 2147-2166, December.
    15. Tripathi, Vinayak R. & Popli, Manish & Gaur, Ajai, 2022. "Spirituality meets science: Impact of founders’ imprint on healthcare practices for marginal communities in India," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 138(C), pages 311-323.
    16. Reilley, Jacob & Löhlein, Lukas, 2023. "Theorizing (and) the future of interdisciplinary accounting research," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    17. Alexis Laszczuk & Lionel Garreau, 2018. "Le Journal de Bord Sibyllique," Post-Print hal-01990906, HAL.
    18. Rashedur Chowdhury, 2023. "Misrepresentation of Marginalized Groups: A Critique of Epistemic Neocolonialism," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 186(3), pages 553-570, September.
    19. Ian Burn & Michael E. Martell, 2022. "Gender typicality and sexual minority labour market differentials," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 60(4), pages 784-814, December.
    20. Mann, Samuel, 2020. "The Labour Force Status of Transgender People and The Impact of Removing Surgical Requirements to Change Gender on ID Documents," GLO Discussion Paper Series 670, Global Labor Organization (GLO).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:gender:v:27:y:2020:i:6:p:1438-1449. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0968-6673 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.