Sexual Orientation at Work: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives

Tessa Wright

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

ISSN: 2040-7149

Article publication date: 21 September 2015

891

Citation

Tessa Wright (2015), "Sexual Orientation at Work: Contemporary Issues and Perspectives", Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, Vol. 34 No. 7, pp. 640-643. https://doi.org/10.1108/EDI-03-2015-0019

Publisher

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Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2015, Emerald Group Publishing Limited


Fiona Colgan and Nick Rumens have assembled a valuable collection that offers a range of perspectives on how sexual orientation shapes experiences of LGBT workers and organisations. The 15-chapter volume has an international scope, covering a variety of national contexts, including South Africa, Turkey, USA, Canada, Australia, Austria and the UK, as well as a chapter examining the role of international labour organisations in addressing sexual orientation discrimination.

Colgan and Rumens’ introductory chapter usefully outlines three waves of research on lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) sexualities in organisations. The first wave, from the late 1970s, was important in identifying the workplace discrimination experienced by lesbians and gay men, revealing the homophobia and heterosexism present in workplaces that made “coming out” at work a risky strategy. This period of research was shaped by the political activism of the late 1960s and 1970s, particularly in North America, Europe and Australasia, and the growth of the gay liberation movement, although the authors question the extent to which such radicalism filtered into organisational research of the time. From the 1990s, the second wave of organisational research produced a burgeoning of interest in how LGBT workers construct and manage sexual identities, with much attention to revealing strategies for disclosure of sexual orientation at work. The third wave, taken to be the last decade or so, shifts the focus on to how organisations address sexual and gender diversity in the workplace, shaped by legislative advances and attitudinal shifts in many countries. This period also saw a developing interest in diversity within and across the LGBT acronym, including attention to intersectionality, a theme which is picked up in this volume. Additionally, the influence of postmodernism and poststructuralism can be seen in the development within organisational and management studies of insights from queer theory, which had been prominent in the humanities and social sciences.

The first group of chapters in the book are focused on LGBT experiences in particular work settings or occupations. The Canadian, US and UK militaries are explored in Michèle Bowring and Joanna Brewis’ chapter through interviews with current and former service personnel, which reveal the impact of military policy, including bans on LGB military service until recently, and the hypergendered contexts experienced. Despite the welcome removal of such bans, the chapter reveals continuing inequalities, for example in relation to benefits for spouses in the US military. The UK police force represents another masculinised occupation, discussed in John Broomfield’s chapter on gay men in the police. He finds an improved organisational climate as a result of equality policies. Yet these advances are at the expense of dividing gay male police into those displaying gender normative and acceptable forms of masculinity, contrasted with the “camp other”, who is considered to be unsuited to policing work. A different perspective on law enforcement is offered by Todd Brower’s chapter on LGBT workers in US and UK courts, which highlights that institutions with a remit to uphold fairness may be just as likely as other workplaces to display expectations that LGBT sexuality should remain invisible. However, the chapter also found evidence of openness and positive experiences of visibility, reflecting change in other sectors. Visibility and disclosure remain important concerns for lesbian and gay teachers, as Catherine Connell discusses in her chapter drawing on interviews with teachers and administrators in California and Texas. While there are pressures to exclude discussion of (homo)sexuality from the classroom, some teachers felt a moral obligation to come out as a role model or support for LGB students. As with the police, certain “good” or “normal” lesbian or gay identities were considered acceptable, differentiated from “flamboyant” self-presentations or identities associated with Latino gay or trans men.

A key strength of this book is the focus in many chapters on the intersection of sexual orientation with other categories of difference such as gender, ethnicity, class, disability and age. The concept of intersectionality was developed by black feminists, in particular , to highlight how gender, race and class intertwine to produce specific experience that is overlooked when only one category or identity is the focus of attention. Sexual orientation, however, is typically the least explored category for intersectional analysis (), and this book addresses this gap. Elizabeth McDermott’s contribution introdues the often absent category of social class as an axis for analysis of lesbians’ experience of paid work and mental health and wellbeing. She finds that working-class lesbians are more likely to experience work-related ill health, such as stress, anxiety and depression, due to lack of security, choice and positive self-identity from work. Experiences of parenthood and its relationship to paid employment are also mediated by the materially different circumstances of two lesbians from different class backgrounds, and further discussion of the impact of partnership status would have been illuminating. Fiona Colgan’s chapter contributes the perspective of black and minority ethnic (BME) and disabled LGBT workers, also frequently missing from research on sexual orientation. Despite the research focus on “good practice” employers, the “normal violence” of organisational life () was exacerbated for BME workers, in particular where senior management reflected white and male-dominated hierarchies. Disclosure also has a particular resonance for BME and disabled workers, for whom sexuality may be an additional identity they choose to hide, for example in the case of disabled workers who have already expended energy on coming out about their disability. The experiences of young lesbian, gay, bisexual or queer (LGBQ) workers in fixed-term or casual work in Australia is the theme of Paul Willis’ chapter. It focuses on the stories of three workers aged under 26 to identify the discursive violence – in the form of informal comments and implicit questions – as well as the material violence present in heteronormative organisations. Mikki van Zyl’s chapter analyses interviews with 22 lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or intersex (LGBTI) people in South Africa from African, coloured and white backgrounds. She uses the lens of “belonging” to understand LGBTI experiences of marginalisation at work, drawing on analytical framework which marks out the boundaries of belonging: social locations; identities and attachments to communities and political values of inclusions/exclusions. This highlights the tensions between the constitutional rights of citizenship and the everyday experiences of homoprejudice.

Another group of chapters employs postructuralist or queer theory approaches in their analysis to question and destabilise categories of gender, sexuality and heterosexuality. Fortunately these chapters avoid the shortcomings of earlier queer theory approaches which had a tendency to focus on “texts” at the expense of “real” queer life (), and are grounded in empirical analysis of LGBT experience. In their chapter on gay men in Turkey, Mustafa Öztürk and Mustafa Özbilgin apply queer theory to the “lifecycle” of compulsory heterosexuality, revealing the heteronormative constructions of the institutions of family, education, the military and the workplace. More extensive analysis of the workplace could have been included, though, given the focus of this volume. The chapter identifies the lack of legal recourse in the face of institutional prejudice and discrimination, and while uncovering some stories of gay men’s resistance, the authors are not optimistic about prospects for change in the near future. Ruth Simpson’s chapter on gay male cabin crew bears poststructuralist influences in its attention to the performative nature of space. This approach reveals the contrast between the feminised, homosexualised space of the airline cabin and the masculine, heterosexual space of the flight deck. The chapter is valuable in highlighting how space and sexuality intersect, in particular where the heteronormative gaze of passengers shapes cabin crew identity. Nick Rumens also takes a queer theory perspective to question notions of the “gay-friendly” workplace. While welcoming the intention of employers to create workplaces that are comfortable for LGBT employees, he expresses concern about the business-friendly construction of the gay-friendly workplace, premised on employer benefits. Furthermore, the singular notion of the gay-friendly workplace may not convey the diversity within and between sexual minorities, or examine the intersections of categories such as class with sexual or gender identity. As other chapters have observed (see Broomfield and Connell), a normalised or acceptable gay sexuality characterised by conservatism, replicating heterosexual relations, is prioritised, and the notion of the gay-friendly workplace may support heteronormative power relations.

Roswitha Hofmann, Karin Schönpflug and Christine Klapeer’s chapter concerns the collection of statistical data on LGB populations, and introduces a perhaps unexpected queer theory lens, given the necessary categorisation involved in such data collection. The chapter examines a survey of lesbians in Austria and LGB data collection across the EU, and concludes that statistical data collection represents a tool of governmentality in defining which identities and relationships become recognised as countable. Among examples of heteronormative bias identified in their European survey of data collection, they highlight the presumption by the National Statistics Office of Iceland that where parents are of the same sex, the older is coded as the father and the younger as the mother! The chapter usefully highlights the tensions between the necessity of data collection on LGB populations to quantify discrimination and the risk of homogenising sexual and gender categories that they consider to be fluid and complex.

Two final chapters turn their attention to the role of the trade union movement in advancing LGBT equality. Suzanne Franzway shows how feminist and queer activism has influenced Australian trade unions. She focuses on sexual politics in order to reveal the way in which normative heterosexual gender relations are produced through political contestations over power to shape meanings of gender. The chapter traces the growth of LGBTI self or separate organising within trade unions as a means of gaining self-confidence and building political strength, alongside alliances with queer community activists. While overt discrimination may have declined in the Australian union movement, and LGBTI workers’ needs are far more visible, it remains a challenge at times to retain a continued focus on the sexual politics of the workplace. The final chapter, by Gerald Hunt, highlights how LGBT activists, including the labour movement, are increasingly focusing attention on the international scene, given the blatant discrimination and prohibition of homosexual acts in many countries. The chapter identifies the increasing involvement of global labour unions in work on sexual orientation, and specifically explores the effects of international framework agreements (IFAs) in tackling sexual orientation discrimination. IFAs are contracts signed between multinational corporations and global labour unions, potentially also affecting the global supply chain. Around a third of agreements analysed covered sexual orientation or sexuality, including several global auto and metal manufacturing corporations. Hunt argues that such agreements can represent a potentially transformative gain for LGBT workers in countries with no existing legal protections, although further research is needed on their impact worldwide.

In all, this collection of research from a variety of occupational and national contexts represents a valuable development of our understandings of the operation of sexual orientation at work. The chapters offer a range of analytical and theoretical approaches which can be taken forward by others to further scholarship in this field. The editors set out to include intersectional perspectives, and have achieved this in several chapters that offer insights into how age, ethnicity, disability and social class interweave with sexual orientation at work. However, there is much scope for further empirical analysis employing an intersectional approach, for which this book provides some directions. In common with much research in this area, though, the book pays far less attention to bisexual or trans experience, perhaps illustrating the difficulty of trying to encompass a broad range of perspectives within a 258-page volume. Given the fluidity of sexual identity emphasised by some chapters, a welcome focus for future research would be lived experience of bisexuality. Routledge’s pricing policy makes this an expensive purchase at £85, however, the e-book will be a very valuable addition to libraries and should enable a wider audience, including students, to gain access to this very welcome collection.

References

Acker, J. (2000), “Revisiting class: thinking from gender, race and organizations”, Social Politics , Vol. 7 No. 2, pp. 192-214.

Crenshaw, K. (1991), “Mapping the margins: intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color”, Stanford Law Review , Vol. 43 No. 6, pp. 1241-1299.

Hines, S. (2011), “Sexing gender; gendering sex: towards an intersectional analysis of transgender”, in Taylor, Y. , Hines, S. and Casey, M.E. (Eds), Theorizing Intersectionality and Sexuality , Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke, pp. 140-162.

Stein, A. and K., Plummer (1996), “‘I can’t even think straight’: ‘queer’ theory and the missing sexual revolution in sociology”, in Seidman, S. (Ed.), Queer Theory/Sociology , Blackwell, Cambridge, MA, pp. 129-144.

Yuval-Davis, N. (2011), The Politics of Belonging: Intersectional Contestations , Sage, London.

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