Gender Trouble beyond the LGB and T: Gender Image and Experiences of Marginalization on Campus

• In Event: 2484 - Section on Sociology of Education Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 07. Gender and Sexualities in Education

Abstract

This study explores gender marginalization to better understand who is at risk of being marginalized. In addition to conventional measures of sex, gender, and sexual identities, we explore novel, scaled measures of how students see themselves, and how they think others see them, with respect to masculinity, femininity, and androgyny. Gender is socially constructed, and is not fully captured through categorical measures of gender or gender identity, and so we used the scaled measures of gender image to allow for a more complex understanding of gender that further disrupts binary understandings of gender.
In a survey distributed to undergraduate college students, we look at experiences of gender microaggressions across the campus including experiences with pronouns, bathrooms, and interactions with staff and faculty. What we find is that marginalization based on gender is experienced by all students of all genders, and students who do not necessarily identify as transgender also experience microaggressions based on how others view their gender. Our study also shows that microaggressions based on gender goes far beyond the bathroom and is experienced in classrooms, offices, and other areas of the campus. And, so, studies that aim to understand student experiences on the college campus, categorical measures of gender fall short of capturing a deeper understanding of gender identity and how those genders experience the campus.

Authors

• Kari J. Dockendorff, University of Utah

• Claudia Geist, University of Utah