Lesbians and Work

What differences and similarities exist at work between lesbian women in various careers around the world? Lesbians and Work: The Advantages and Disadvantages of 'Comfortable Shoes' answers this crucial question, providing respected authorities presenting qualitative research methods to closely examine lesbian women's working lives. This insightful resource discusses the variability among lesbians in their experiences of and responses to workplace heteronormativity and cites the similarities among this population across geographical and national boundaries. Presented in their own words, these women's viewpoints reveal a wide spectrum of experiences-both advantages and disadvantages-of being a lesbian woman in the workplace. This book provides international perspectives on lesbians and work that can help readers making career choices to consider sexual orientation issues in choosing their career path. The book also can be used by human resource professionals as a resource to learn how to better manage sexual diversity in the workplace, provide effective training/development programs to address sexual prejudice, alter benefits requirements for employees, and avoid discrimination lawsuits. This book is a valuable resource for human resource managers, college professors in women's studies, lesbian studies, psychology and their students, and career counselors. The book was published as a special issue of the Journal of Lesbian Studies.

Pamela A. Brand, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Psychology at the State University of New York (SUNY) College at Oswego. Dr. Brand teaches undergraduate courses on Social Psychology, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Violence in Contemporary Society, and Interpersonal Victimization. She began researching lesbian issues as an undergraduate, publishing the first empirical study comparing relationship violence among lesbian and heterosexual women. Currently, her research interests focus on violence-related attitude measurement, formation, and change.

- Introduction (Pamela A. Brand) - Lesbians Still Face Job Discrimination (Margaret R. Rynker) - Discrimination Versus Specialization: A Survey of Economic Studies on Sexual Orientation, Gender and Earnings at the United States (Elizabeth Dunne Schmitt) - Lesbian Workers: Personal Strategies Amid Changing Organisational Responses to 'Sexual Minorities' in UK Workplaces (Fiona Colgan, Chris Creegan, Aidan McKearney, and Tessa Wright) - Coping with Workplace Heteronormativity Among Lesbian Employees: A German Study (Annett Losert) - My Revolving Closet Door (Suzanne M. Johnson) - "Bringing Home More than a Paycheck:" An Exploratory Analysis of Black Lesbians' Experiences of Stress and Coping in the Workplace (Lisa Bowleg, Kelly Brooks, and Susan Faye Ritz) - Working for a Living: The Vocational Decision Making of Lesbians (Misty K. Hook and Sharon Bowman) - Career Choices of Lesbian Women (Jukka Lehtonen) - Lesbian Firefighters: Shifting the Boundaries Between "Masculinity" and "Femininity" (Tessa Wright) - Phallus Envy (Laurie Essig)