Special Issue: Challenging cisnormativity and gender binarism in management research
The deadline for submission is June 30th 2020.
Thomas Köllen
University of Bern
thomas.koellen@iop.unibe.ch
Nick Rumens
Oxford Brookes Business School
nrumens@brookes.ac.uk
Despite the great strides scholars have taken over the last few decades to address gender blindness in management and organization studies research (Collinson and Hearn, 1996; Kerfoot and Knights, 1993; Ramohai, 2019; Swan, 2010), much of the scholarship in the field addresses issues related to cisgender men and women (O'Shea, 2018). While gender and management research has sought to problematize essentialist concepts of gender, there is a tendency in the literature to "adhere to a binary model of both two genders, and two sexes" (Köllen 2019, p. 4). Cisgender has been developed as a term to refer to individuals as non-trans gendered subjects. Coined by Sigusch (1991) as "cissexual" [ger. zissexuell], the Latin prefix "cis" (engl. on this side), as the complement of "trans" (engl. on the other side), is used to describe the gender identification of individuals who feel their assigned sex aligns with their assigned gender. Or, as Serano puts it, cisgender or cissexual designates "people who are not transsexual and who have only ever experienced their subconscious and physical sexes as being aligned" (2007, p. 12). Similarly, established in the work of Bauer et al. (2009, p. 356), cisnormativity "describes the expectation that all people are cissexual, that those assigned male at birth always grow up to be men and those assigned female at birth always grow up to be women. This assumption is so pervasive that it otherwise has not yet been named". Deployed as an analytical category, cisnormativity has enabled scholars to illuminate and question the cisnormative assumptions about sex and gender that pervade many societies, but remain difficult to recognize because they are taken for granted. In the same way, there is a widespread assumption of a stable system of only two sexes and two genders: as cis- or trans-identities. Intersex-persons are therefore almost invisible within the discourse on gender in management (Köllen, 2016).
Just as the concept of heteronormativity is a serious concern for scholars studying sexuality (Rumens, 2018), in the context of this special issue cisnormativity and gender-binarism are potentially powerful analytical lenses through which scholars may interrogate cisnormative and gender-binary assumptions within the workplace. It can focus clearly on how the lives, issues and interests of transpeople and intersex people can be erased through workplace policies and practices, and the types of interactions and workplace relations trans- and intersex-people experience with cisgender men and women. For our purposes, challenging cisnormativity and gender binarism underscores the importance of enabling trans- and intersex-people to write their own histories, narratives and experiences of what it is to be 'trans' or 'inter' in management and work contexts (e.g. O'Shea, 2018). Indeed, the term 'trans' is a site of competing meanings and definitions, some of which cannot and refuse to be reconciled. As Halberstam points out, the presence of an asterisk after the term trans (e.g. trans*) staves off "any sense of knowing in advance what the meaning of this or that gender variant form may be" (2018: 4). Similarly, the term "inter" may also be used with an asterisk, as beside representing a broad range of possible self-designations, it also represents a broad range of diversity in individuals' chromosomal, gonadal and phenotypic sexes (Köllen, 2016). This special issue aims to maintain this sense of openness so we may encounter myriad meanings of what it is to be(come) trans and inter. In that regard, we acknowledge the current limitations of how transpeople and intersex persons and workplace issues have been approached; typically by grouping them with minority sexual orientations in permutations of the LGBTI moniker (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex). Crucially, their inclusion into this initialism potentially contributes to reproducing their neglected and marginalized status (Köllen, 2016; Sawyer et al., 2016). In turn, this raises the question of how trans genders and inter sexes can be included in gender and management research without reproducing the restrictive terms upon which this inclusion is currently granted.
Despite the prominence of trans studies (e.g. Halberstam, 2005, 2018; Namaste, 2009; Salah, 2007), from which gender and management scholars could derive inspiration, the idea of the gender(ed) subject as trans or intersex has failed to sustain scholarly attention. The aim of this special issue is to bring trans- and intersex-people and related workplace issues to the fore and, in so doing, problematize the ubiquitous and persistent nature of cisnormativity and gender binarism in management research. While prospects for living gender and sex diversity can be exciting in some parts of the world and severely curtailed in others, research indicates that transpeople experience disproportionately high rates of violence, harassment and discrimination in, for example, workplaces, schools, healthcare institutions and child welfare systems (Bauer et al., 2009; Dispenza et al., 2012; Stotzer, 2009).
To our knowledge, no empirical research has explored the work experiences of intersex-people. In regard to transpeople's experiences of work, studies show how they can suffer aggression, hostility and discrimination, leading to social isolation, threats and acts of violence, stress, job demotions and dismissal (Connell, 2010; Dispenza et al., 2012; Schilt and Westbrook, 2009). Transpeople face formidable work and career-related challenges and barriers in the workplace, including the accommodations (e.g. use of change rooms and bathrooms/toilets) that employers should make to ensure that transpeople are provided with a safe, discrimination free work environment (Budge, Tebbe and Howard, 2010; McFadden and Crowley-Henry, 2016; Ozturk and Tatli, 2016). For transpeople engaged in a process of gender transitioning the experience of ignorance, hostility and violence from co-workers can be commonplace, especially if employers do not support gender transitioning (Sangganjanavanich and Cavazos, 2010). Worryingly, studies reveal that transpeople are likely to consider and change to lower-skilled, lower-paid employment following gender transitioning (Gagne et al., 1997). As one Male-to-Female (MtF) transsexual study participant in Riach, Rumens and Tyler (2014) put it: 'If I can't be a partner in this [accounting] firm, it doesn't matter. If it means I've got to do some work that maybe is at a lower level than I do now, it doesn't matter. I just want to be ordinary'. Clearly, living as trans can diminish not only an individual's career aspirations and trajectory, but also their material circumstances (Köllen 2018). On the issue of gender transgression, another strand of research has explored how transpeople can undo but also reinforce gender norms that sustain a cisnormative gender binary in specific work contexts such as leadership (Muhr et al., 2013, 2016). One poignant observation is that transpeople challenge and buttress gender norms in the workplace in very complex and sometimes unpredictable ways (Thanem and Wallenberg, 2016).
In light of the above, papers submitted for this special issue are invited but not limited to address any of the following topics:
- How may trans and intersex issues and perspectives be included in gender and management research without reproducing cisnormativity and gender binarism?;
- The career challenges and barriers for transpeople in different contexts of work and appropriate management responses;
- The unique experiences of and barriers for intersex-persons in the workplace and possible management approaches for their inclusion;
- The possibilities and limitations for identifying as trans* or intersex at work
- How trans- and intersex identities and in the workplace intersect with sexuality, race, ethnicity, age, class, disability, etc;
- The shape, the reasons and the impact of the persistent omission in gender research on recognizing trans*- and inter*-identities in gender and management research;
- The danger of losing or undermining the starting point for political claims for equality and redistribution between biological sexes (i.e. the dichotomy men-women), when integrating intersex into management research and practice on gender (and with it questioning the binary model of two sexes);
- The experiences of transpeople transitioning in the workplace;
- Theoretical developments in how trans is understood in the workplace – e.g, how might gender and management scholars draw on trans studies to this end?;
- How is cisnormativity and gender-binarism a feature of the management curriculum and how can this be overcome?
- What are the experiences of management students who identify as trans* or inter*?
- Forms of trans and inter activism in the workplace;
How can LGB employees reproduce cisnormativity and gender binarism in the workplace towards trans and intersex employees?
- Workplace allies of trans and/or intersex employees;
Submission Info
Deadline for submission is June 30th 2020. Submissions to be made via the Gender in Management Scholar One system https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/gm
Authors please refer to the Gender in Management guidelines found here
References
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Thomas Köllen
IOP, University of Bern, Switzerland
www.iop.unibe.chwww.koellen.eu------------------------------