UNBOUND LEADERSHIP: HOW GENDER NON-CONFORMING, OR NON-BINARY LESBIANS NAVIGATE THE WORKPLACE FROM A PLACE OF VISIBILITY.

October 2021

"This research explores the hidden workplace structures of homophobic binary expectations and enforcement, and how such constructs affect the working lives of gender non-conforming and non-binary lesbians. From the bathroom to the boardroom and most work spaces in between, non-binary and gender non-conforming lesbians face discrimination and harassment stemming from assumptions and prejudices arising from their gender presentation. Participants report harassment and discrimination ranging from being sexually harassed, and sexually assaulted, to a lack of mentoring, purposeful misgendering, bullying, misogyny, precarity, homophobic comments and gendered discrimination, and being fired. This qualitative research project used a constructivist grounded theory approach to gain insights from 25 gender non-conforming and non-binary lesbians on their workplace experiences. Through a thematic analysis of these interviews, a theoretical model was developed to illustrate the ways in which participants navigate and mitigate hidden structures of binary enforcement and homophobic policing. This analysis gave rise to an emergent leadership model of ‘Unbound Leadership’. The four pieces of this portfolio are designed to engage listeners (podcasts and TEDx-style talk), visual learners (the hologram), readers (the article). This format was purposeful to make the research accessible to practitioners working in these critical human resource fields, to research participants (who are also Unbound Leaders looking to make change in their workplaces), to allies, and colleagues. An important goal of this research is to contribute to the change process necessary to increase access and equity in the workplace. Thus the portfolio consists of a TEDx-style talk, a 3D imaging, or hologram of the emergent Unbound Leadership theory, a series of podcasts, an article to be submitted to a peer-reviewed journal, and a document summarizing the GNC-NB Research Project portfolio."  From the research portfolio summary.