‘Being accepted there makes me rely less on acceptance here’: cross-context identity enactment and coping with gender identity threats at work for non-binary individuals

Abstract

We aimed to understand how nonbinary individuals cope with gender identity threats in different contexts at work. We used a grounded theory approach through semi-structured interviews with 28 nonbinary Brazilian individuals from 25 organizations. In environments that are threatening to their gender identity, nonbinary individuals adopt a trial-and-error process of gender identity expression that makes them realize that restructuring their identity leads to a high sense of inauthenticity, while preserving it incurs high social costs. As both are unsatisfactory, some of them adopt ambiguous responses that allow them to find ways to make identity claims through performative processes of gender identity expression. Such a process, although not fully reflecting their desire for authenticity, provides satisfactory validation. This mechanism is possible when they interact in other environments where their identity claims are validated. Thus, the gender identity expression validated in more receptive contexts allows these individuals to experience what we named as cross-context identity enactment. It is a process by which the social validation that individuals obtain by enacting an identity in a less-threatening context allows them to rely less on validation in a more threatening context to retain such identity in their self-concept.