Would You Like A Job? Or A Better Job?

by Katherine Cummings

(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.)

When I am not working for the Gender Centre, I have a position in the Social Policy Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences (F.A.S.S.).

Because I expressed interest in diversity, I was appointed to the F.A.S.S. Dean's Equity and Diversity Advisory Committee (D.E.D.A.C.). As the name suggests, this committee looks into matters of equity and diversity for members of the university and makes recommendations to improve conditions for the disadvantaged, and remove barriers for those who belong to minorities.

Early this year I prepared a paper for D.E.D.A.C., outlining the problems experienced by transgenders in gaining and holding jobs, or in progressing through the system without disadvantages created by their transgendered state.

I provided statistics of unemployment rates for our community, and pointed out the disadvantages brought about through early transition, which often causes transgenders to drop out of their educational stream in order to concentrate on the logistics of transition. I also mentioned the problem of having educational and other important documents transferred into one's new name, and the depression and lack of self-confidence frequently experienced by transgenders as a result of discrimination and prejudice.

The paper was well received and it was suggested that it deserved a wider publication than it would receive if it were confined within the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. It was suggested that I take it to the Human Resources Unit for the university as a whole and a meeting was arranged for the Chairman of D.E.D.A.C. and me to meet with the Deputy Director of Human Resources.

When this meeting came I was pleased (and a little surprised) that the Deputy Director had read my paper in advance of the meeting and was clearly sympathetic to its aims. He arranged for me to talk to a meeting of all the Departmental Human Resources Managers within the university. This meeting took place on September 16 and again I was gratified by the co-operative and sympathetic attitude of the Human Resource executives. They asked pertinent and informed questions and showed that they were prepared to co-operate with the Gender Centre in setting up a system designed to help transgenders into employment.

One of the points they raised was that it might be easier in some cases to place transgenders in temporary or casual positions, so that their supervisors and co-workers could get to know them and the quality of their work. This would make it easier to place them in permanent positions if such positions arose.

It was agreed that I would encourage clients of the Gender Centre to lodge their C.V.s with me in digital form and that I would look at the positions available in the university once a week to see if there were any suitable positions for our candidates. If so, I would contact the owner of the C.V. and see if they wished to apply. I would then forward the digital C.V. via Human esources at U.N.S.W. for consideration by those making the selection.

There are no guarantees that trangenders will receive preference, but the climate of goodwill was such in the meeting that I think a window might be opening for employment of transgenders and I feel we should take every possible opportunity to show that we can work as well as anyone, and better than most.

It was heartening to find that the university has already placed a link with the Gender Centre on its Human Resource web page. This can only help prospective employers to know more about the Centre and about transgender.

If you feel this program has something for you, please express your interest and provide me with a digital C.V., if you have one. If you do not have a C.V. and are uncertain how best to write one, Liz Ceismann, the Case Manager at the Gender Centre, will be organising a T.A.F.E. course in C.V. writing and interview techniques, as soon as a teacher can be found to take on the course.

If you are interested in the T.A.F.E. offering, watch our Twitter and this website. There will not be another issue of Polare out until January and I hope there will be movement at the station before the end of the year.

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.