My View

Education, Employment & Changing Gender

by Roberta Perkins

(The Gender Centre advise that this article may not be current and as such certain content, including but not limited to persons, contact details and dates may not apply. Where legal authority or medical related matters are cited, responsibility lies with the reader to obtain the most current relevant legal authority and/or medical publication.)

Joan won the University Medal for her B.A. Hons. dissertation in Social Work three years ago at the University of Sydney. One by one she watched her fellow students obtain employment until she was the only one from her class still unemployed. This deplorable situation became such an embarrassment to the University department from which she received the award that they felt obliged to employ her as a part-time tutor. What was it that made this obviously outstanding scholar such a poor candidate for employment? Did she have leprosy? Did she have gaping pusey sores on her face and arms? Was her hair a mass of writhing snakes? No, none of these things. Joan has simply changed her gender some time in the past, and followed this with genital surgery. In the eyes of most of the prospective employers she approached, this made her ineligible for employment, regardless of her brilliant academic record, or the fact that she possessed the necessary skills to do the job.

The problem facing Joan is a common one which most transgender people have to deal with throughout most of their lives. "transgender" is a term recently adopted by the new trany rights movement whose advocates reject the existing medical terminology of "transsexual" to describe someone who undergoes a "sex-change" operation, and " transvestite" to describe someone who wears the clothing appropriate to the gender opposite to that assigned to them at birth, regardless of whether or not this is a permanent adjustment. The term "transgender" refers to one who crosses their gender regardless of whether surgery is involved or not. Because one trany can afford $10,000 for a "sex-change" operation and another cannot is no criterion for distinction. Then there are scholars, like Marjorie Garber (Vested Interests, Penguin, London 1993), who argue that outer symbols of gender-appropriateness changes so frequently that all such terminology is irrelevant.

A recent project funded by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, which I carried out at the University of New South Wales, provides ample evidence for widespread discrimination against transgender people. In the project's report Transgender Lifestyles and H.I.V. / AIDS Risk (Department of Health and Human Services, Canberra, 1993), 55% of 146 transgenders surveyed across Australia were receiving Social Security benefits, 21% were currently involved in sex work, and 8% were working in the theatre chiefly as drag artists. A further 7% were employed as welfare workers to the trany community, less than 30% were employed in jobs outside traditional trany occupations. Table 1 shows the dramatic decline in employment dating from before the gender change to the present. These figures leave little doubt that discrimination is the cause of high unemployment in the trany community. Whilst table 1 indicates that trannies posses the skills to do various occupations, table 2 shows that they have received high education too. By comparison, in the general Australian population 40% never reached the highest secondary schooling, 13% attained the highest secondary schooling, 13% received a trade certificate, 19% a diploma and 9% achieved a tertiary degree (A.B.S. Social Indicators 1992: 147]

These findings illustrate an abysmal situation of blatant discrimination and the deprivation of a group of people whose gender change is an obvious negative factor in their attaining a livable income. Nearly half the sample had resorted to sex work on the streets as a survival strategy. This brought many of these vulnerable desperate people close to the drug scene, their fragile self-esteem plunging them into heavy addictions to heroin, cocaine, amphetamines, "crack" or barbiturates. Their addictions made them even more unemployable, and worse, it eliminated them as candidates for a "sex-change" operation, even if they could afford it.

Even those trannies who have changed gender whilst in tenured employment are not impervious to threats of unemployment. They are often faced with disintegrating support from colleagues in their workplace until they often discover they are alone in a hostile environment. They may be barred from entering toilets appropriate to their new gender, or find their desk has been moved to a less conspicuous corner of the office. In the case of Helen, an airline mechanic who had changed from male to female, the harassment and isolation was so severe and relentless that she was forced to resign for the sake of her health after 20 years of service for the company. Neither the company, nor any of it's staff were prepared to listen to Helen's pleas to be judged solely on her productive output. Instead, they began finding fault with her work. Under such pressure, a trannie's quality of work will actually begin to deteriorate, so that a boss has a "legitimate" reason for sacking her/him. But even in work situations where a trany has the support of work colleagues and her/his job itself is not under threat, she/he may find that her/his advancement in the company has suddenly grounded to a halt. In many subtle ways the trany is made aware that he/she is regarded as a lesser being, and will end up being grateful for having a job at all, let alone expect a promotion.

What is it about trannies that alarms others to such a degree that her/his new gender takes priority over their scholarship or work skills?

Is the kind of irrational fear of change that gripped 15,000 Sydneysiders recently when the State Governor status change, causing them to publicly demonstrate with Aussie flags fluttering, despite the fact that probably fewer than a handful of them even knew the Governor's name before the hysteria? Fear of change linked with a challenge to their own gender identity may cause them to react insensitively towards trannies. And they can do this without guilt because they have already depersonalised and dehumanised trannies in their minds, not to mention and inner comfort in believing they are doing God's work of punishing the deviant.

If people's attitudes remain stagnant then it is left to liberal-minder legislators to hurry social change along with new laws. And new laws are on their way, with amendments to the existing Anti-Discrimination Act and Births, Deaths and Marriages Act, due to occur in the next sitting of state parliament. These laws have passed through caucus and will be in force within a few months. It will then become illegal to dismiss a person from their job or deny employment on the basis of their transgender.

The law, however, is not the only mechanism for change, as the following recent of two trannies refused service in a Kings Cross nightclub illustrates. They took the matter to Clover Moore M.P., the trany action group, Transgender Liberation Coalition, and the media. The media pursued the club's manager to the point of forcing him to agree to make a public apology to the two trannies, and give restitution (a "trany tax") by agreeing to allow a trany pride fund raising event to occur in his bar free of charge. The funds from this event were used to pay for a float in the Gay Mardi Gras. Thus, the fruits of this man's discrimination was seen by millions on the global media network.

The point to this incident is that trannies are "coming-out" politically. They are no longer prepared to slink away with feelings of guilt when they are confronted by such blatant discrimination.

Macquarie University is, in principle, opposed to trany discrimination under it's Equal Opportunity Policy, which is "one of equal opportunity in employment and education". At present this depends on the good intentions of this policy. After the passage of the amendments to the N.S.W. Anti-Discrimination Act, however, it's position will then be enshrined in law under section 2 of it's own social legislation.

Any trany student or staff member on campus who feels they are being discriminated against [including harassment] on the grounds of their transgender should seek the assistance of the University's E.E.O. officer, Sarah Levin. A system of dealing with grievances of this nature already exists on campus.

In the Australian 28/2/1996, a story appeared about Economic Professor Donald McCloskey of University of Iowa, a world renown academic who has written 20 books and 200 journal articles in his discipline, and who recently changed his sex, and his name to Deirdre. Her academic colleagues were shocked. Her sister tried to have her committed, and a Psychiatrist declared Deidre was "manic" but not a danger to herself or others. Yes folks, it can even happen to highly respected academics.

Polare is published in Australia by The Gender Centre Inc. which is funded by the Department of Community Services under the S.A.A.P. Program and supported by the N.S.W. Health Department through the AIDS and Infectious Diseases Branch. Polare provides a forum for discussion and debate on gender issues. Advertisers are advised that all advertising is their responsibility under the Trade Practices Act. Unsolicited contributions are welcome, though no guarantee is made by the Editor that they will be published, nor any discussion entered into. The editor reserves the right to edit such contributions without notification. Any submission which appears in Polare may be published on our internet site. Opinions expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect those of the Editor, The Gender Centre Inc.I, the Department of Community Services or the N.S.W. Department of Health.