Doing Identity Work with Transgendered Women
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School of Business |
Master's thesis
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Authors
Date
2017
Department
Major/Subject
Mcode
Degree programme
Management and International Business (MIB)
Language
en
Pages
88
Series
Abstract
Gender, sexuality and identity in relation to individual freedom and equality go to the core of who we are, as well as shape our actions. By offering a glimpse into the identity work processes of two transgendered women, I hope to make visible some of the forces and mechanisms that influence all of us, regardless of our gender or status. The transgendered are a group of people who have long been excluded, diagnosed, defined and oppressed by our current gender system. By making my interviewees’ stories heard, I hope to contribute to change in the prevailing hetero normative and dichotomic gender system. This thesis is a narrative analysis on identity work and gender. In this thesis I aim at answering how the two transgendered women engage in identity work during our consecutive discussions. I also try to identify what the role of gender is during these discussions and in identity work. I have conducted this thesis by interviewing both women in two consecutive in-depth interviews that took place a little over a year apart. After each interview I constructed a narrative that focused on the interviewee’s working life experiences regarding her gender reassignment process and career. Later on, these narratives have worked as background against which I have reflected the identity work and the practice of narrating identity that took place during our meetings. The concept of identity is based on multiple, always changing and socially constructed identities brought forward in popular queer theory literature. I have also used queer theory as a guide in identifying gender related identity work regarding my interviewees. I use the popular identity work literature and my data to name the dominant elements that are present during identity work. I also present a framework for identity work that shows how the previous identity work episode and the micro-level context have an effect on both: narrative identity practice and identity work. In addition I show how gender was present as a subject that was referred to and discussed about and a force that was always looming in the background when we were having our identity discussions. This thesis adds to current identity work literature and queer theory. By making the gender related identity work visible, it helps us to grasp on and change current gendered practices and to undo gender. It also helps us to see and identify some of the forces that contribute to shaping our identities and action.Description
Thesis advisor
Tienari, JanneKeywords
gender, identity work, doing gender, transgender, queer theory, narrative identity