Understanding the Workplace for Gender Minorities

There are different theoretical approaches that attempt to explain the workplace challenges faced by LGBT minorities. Economic studies have usually focused on explaining labor market inequalities as a result of discrimination on the basis of sexuality. Experimental field research has demonstrated the difficulties faced by LGBT individuals in securing employment.

In contrast, psychology theories have focused on examining issues of disclosure of sexual orientation and identity management in the context of discriminatory workplaces. For instance, scholars have theorized sexual orientation as a form of invisible stigma, socially constructed, that affects how, when and where LGBT employees can or cannot disclose their sexuality at work. Finally, poststructuralist theories focus on revealing how power relations within organizations may privilege some sexualities over others.

Poststructuralist-inspired studies of LGBT employees have examined heteronormativity, a term used to describe a normative regime that organizes gender and sexuality into restrictive binaries such as heterosexual/homosexual. Economic analyses of sexual orientation discrimination have examined the wage effects of sexual prejudice within different labor markets. There is increasing evidence that LGBT individuals have consistently suffered a wage penalty in the workplace.

Psychological approaches have been particularly concerned with investigating the negative consequences of stigmatization for sexual minorities, especially the influence on employee wellbeing in the workplace. Sexual minorities who are more satisfied in their roles as a result of acceptance tend to have greater organizational commitment.