Column:
Gender identity impacts the workplace
By Erica Zucco
Published Oct. 23, 2009
http://www.themaneater.com/stories/2009/10/23/gender-identity-impacts-workplace/I've never thought of myself as someone who purposefully performs gender.
I act, talk, dress and behave, for the most part, like a woman is expected to — but I've never really specifically identified as a woman.
I guess other statuses have always been more important to me. Journalist. Friend. Student. There was never really time or necessity to think about the female part, and even when I did, I rarely had to try to play the part. I just was.
For one of my classes I read an article about how a transgender woman puts on her make-up every morning and does her best to consciously perform characteristics Western culture expects out of the female gender: crossing her legs, taking up as little space as possible, not speaking up over a room full of "men." After I'd finished my homework, I went to get ready for a shift at the TV news station where I report. I applied the standard two coats of foundation, powder, copious blush, two shades of eye shadow, eyeliner, lipstick and lip gloss, and it hit me — I perform gender for a living.
