Cisgendered Workspaces: Outright and Categorical Exclusion in Cisgendered Organizations

Abstract

Scholars have only begun exploring how cisgenderism and its byproduct, cissexism, shape organizational processes and how classification systems produce categorical exclusions that harm transgender and non-binary people in cisgendered organizations. Drawing from in-depth interviews with transmasculine and non-binary sex workers, I build on burgeoning research on categorical exclusion in cisgendered organizations, examining how cisgenderism and cissexism, alongside racism, shape what I call cisgendered workspaces. Cisgendered workspaces is a conceptual framework that scholars can use to analyze the complex ways that cisgenderism and cissexism shape the design of workspaces, the administration of gender, workers’ labor experiences, and the adverse effects of cissexist exclusion. I argue that cisgendered workspaces produce two distinct modes of exclusion: outright exclusion and categorical exclusion. I demonstrate how transmasculine and non-binary sex workers experience outright exclusion (e.g., brothels or agencies that refuse to hire them) and categorical exclusions (e.g., escort advertising sites that have options for only cisgender women and men). I explore how cissexist exclusions and racism contribute to workers’ lack of access to critical resources and produce adverse mental health outcomes—all conditions that adversely affect worker job satisfaction and thwart experiences of joy and pleasure.