Comparing the Levels of Unemployment, Precarity and Decent Work between Trans and Cis People in Portugal

Proceedings of The 3rd International Conference on Gender Studies and Sexuality

Year: 2023

DOI:

[PDF]

Comparing the Levels of Unemployment, Precarity and Decent Work between Trans and Cis People in Portugal

José Baptista, Dália Costa, and Sónia P. Gonçalves

ABSTRACT: 

Despite progress in the social acceptance of trans people, there are still high levels of prejudice and discrimination in professional contexts. The concept of decent work refers to the minimum acceptable standards for the working population. In opposition, professional precarity emerges as a multidimensional construct, integrated into the construct of social precarity with several indicators, including unemployment. For there to be decent work, discrimination must not exist and consequently all people must be included. However, if trans people experience discrimination in professional contexts; if the concept of precarity is intimately related to the concepts of gender identity; if literature suggests that trans people are more likely to be unemployed than cis people; it is important to understand their professional integration experience. Consequently, the aim of this study is to analyze the differences of unemployment, precarity and decent work with regards to trans people and cis people in Portugal.

By using a quantitative questionnaire applied in Portugal between October 11th and November 14th 2022, with a sample of 97 trans people and a control sample of 105 cis people, the results reinforce the differences between each professional reality in the Portuguese context, concluding that trans people show higher levels of unemployment and precarity and lower levels of decent work, allowing to query what could be the cause of these differences, as well as attempting to identify the effects of an absence of professional integration of trans people.

keywords: Decent Work, Organizational Diversity, Precarity, Trans, Unemployment