Outside of the Expected: How Sex Discrimination Effects Gender Non Conforming People

Abstract

Gender roles in the workplace have been studied extensively as the United States attempts to work it’s way towards gender equality. We understand that jobs are gendered, with the traits of the job unconsciously being reflected in those hired. This is based upon Alice Eagly’s 1987 Gender Theories of communal and agentic roles. The problem that this paper attempts to address is where gender non-conforming (GNC) people fit in this gender equality fight. It is my hypothesis that because GNC people do not adhere to the traditional traits of either gender, they are subject to additional discrimination in the workplace. I claim that GNC people assigned male at birth who are perceived as men will be “punished� or less likely to secure employment because of their defection from their assigned masculine expectations. I also attempt to describe that GNC people assigned female at birth are just as likely to experience the discrimination of women because of the perception of them as women. GNC who are androgynous are not seen as capable of performing the duties of man or woman. These statements result in the exploration of how discrimination based upon sex is more complicated than simply female/male, and the United States must bridge the gap through revised legal protection.