StepStone’s survey ‘Trans at Work 2017’ highlights the career challenges that transgender employees of the Belgian society face today. In total 286 trans employees shared their personal experiences in the workplace and the significant barriers that they encounter.
Heartbreaking testimonials
“Today, transgender employees in Belgium still face quite some issues. More than one quarter (27%) have quit a job due to an unwelcoming environment, the survey reveals. 62% of the respondents have felt discriminated in the workplace due to being trans. It is therefore no surprise that half of trans employees have felt the need to hide their trans status from colleagues during their career.”
Eefje van der Meer, board member of Transgenderkring Vlaams-Brabant (a transgender association in Flemish Brabant), confirms: “Like the heartbreaking testimonials arising from the survey, we regularly receive testimonials from our members about discrimination. Not only in the workplace, but also in social activities and their own family situation. Happily, though, we have noticed that this topic has become more open to discussion in the last few years. More and more employers are coming to us, or other trans organizations like Transgenderinfopunt, for advice on how best to support transgender employees in the workplace.”
StepStone’s survey also reveals some positive findings. 64% of trans employees rate their workplace performance as better than before their transition, and more than three out of four (76%) received positive reactions from colleagues when they transitioned. These results make it clear that transitioning will, in most cases, positively affect the employee’s work experience.
Government and HR could be more supportive
The survey also tells us that there are some big opportunities for the Belgian government in supporting trans employees in the workplace. 80% of the French and 44% of the Dutch respondents state that the government is not making sufficient effort to support transgender employees in the workplace.
“We think it’s a challenging outcome”, says Liesbet Stevens, deputy director of the Institute for the equality of women and men, an independent Belgian public institution created in 2002 to fight discrimination on the grounds of sex. “For 10 years our organization has worked to make people aware of the rights of transgender people. We do research into their personal situation and problems, we make recommendations to all kinds of stakeholders, and we deal with complaints and represent transgender persons in court, who have suffered discrimination.” But Liesbet Stevens is aware that there are fewer active organizations in the French-speaking part of the country. “And often those are our key partners to get the right information to the transgender people”, she adds.
As well as government, HR departments also seem to play a crucial role in supporting trans employees. During transitioning, trans employees feel almost three times more accepted by colleagues when there has been support from the HR department (92%) than when there has been no support (35%).
With the ‘Trans at Work 2017’ survey, StepStone hopes to support greater awareness of employment issues faced by trans workers and to help society more broadly to understand the significant barriers trans people encounter.
* ‘Trans’ is used as an overarching term for transvestism, transgenderism, transsexuality and all other forms of gender variation. As the term does not refer to a problem or disorder, it avoids stigmatization and/or medicalization of the condition.