Research from Trinity Business School has revealed that people who are classed as transgender are more likely to opt to go in to self-employment, rather than face any forms of discrimination during the application process for different jobs. The study which was conducted by Klavs Ciprikis from the Economic and Social Research Institute, Damien Cassells from NUI Maynooth and Jenny Berrill from Trinity Business School, looked at a wide sample of transgender people who were based in the United States and discovered that cisgender men were more likely to want to work for themselves and perhaps start their own businesses than cisgender women.
Dr Klavs Ciprikis was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Economic Analysis Division. His research interests include labour economics, health economics and social science. Klavs has published research in international peer reviewed academic journals such as Gender, Work and Organization, and Small Enterprise Research. Klavs obtained his PhD in Economics from Technological University Dublin in 2020.
Klavs holds a BSc in Accounting and Finance and an MSc in Finance from Dublin Institute of Technology. Prior to joining ESRI, Klavs was a lecturer in economics and finance at Technological University Dublin and Trinity College Dublin.
The research also looked at the amount of money people are likely to go on and earn in the future according to what gender they identified as. The initial research discovered that transgender people are more likely to earn less than cisgender people with their being a rather large divide between the size of the amount of income people from both groups could get.
Following the findings, it was discovered that over half of those transgender people who were surveyed suffered some form of discrimination which could affect their present and future prospects when trying to advance in their careers. This illustrates that they have not been given equal opportunities and more needs to done to create a level playing field in which everyone can prosper with support where needed. Adjustments must be made to ensure that no one will feel discriminated against and will be able to move forward in their own time and reach their full potential. This helps to establish a fairer work place model in which no one is isolated from others when doing the same or similar tasks.
Meanwhile, in terms of income from self-employment, the researchers found self-employed transgender people to be no better or worse off than self-employed cisgender men.
In undertaking the study, the researchers used data from the Behavioural Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a nationally representative health-related survey, between 2018 and 2021 across 41 US states. The survey contains information about individuals’ gender status and identities.
Reflecting on the study, the authors state that “the findings of this article provide important and timely information on transgender labour market outcomes and experiences that influence their employment decision. For the first time we can compare and analyse differences in self-employment rates and incomes from self-employment between transgender and cisgender persons. These findings are particularly important for future policy developments to improve labour market outcomes and mitigate inequalities experienced by transgender persons, which is one of the potentially most marginalised groups in the USA”.
Through out time, transgender people have been subject to a strong stigma in the employment system and society. This has led them to believe that self-employment was the best option to escape the inequalities in the labour market. However, the rate of transgender employment when compared to equivalent people in transgender employment hadn’t been looked at in enough detail.
Transgender is a broad term that can be used to describe people whose gender identity is different from the gender they were thought to be when they were born. “Trans” is often used as shorthand for transgender.
To treat a transgender person with respect, you treat them according to their gender identity, not their sex at birth. So, someone who lives as a woman today is called a transgender woman and should be referred to as “she” and “her.” A transgender man lives as a man today and should be referred to as “he” and “him.”
The Equality Act 2010 makes it illegal to discriminate against an individual based on their sexual orientation or gender identity, and this includes individuals whose gender identity does not match the one they were assigned at birth.
Despite a growing global awareness of the struggles trans people face, many employers remain ill-equipped to create the policies and workplace cultures that would support trans employees. Part of the problem is a lack of knowledge about these challenges. Indeed, even companies that are LGBTQ+-friendly usually focus more on the “LGB” than on the “TQ+.”
