Towards Academic Gender Justice: Trans* Faculty Re-conceptualizing Gender Equity

Despite debate about the status of women faculty within U.S. universities, the discourse of gender equity often follows genderist and heterosexist logics (e.g., only two genders, oriented along heterosexual lines). In this qualitative study, I draw on the perspectives of trans* faculty to explore the ways that participants re-conceptualized gender equity, in what I call academic gender justice. Participants indicated that collecting data about trans* people is critically important, but there are potential challenges with this approach. Participants also indicated that unsettling existing logics of the family and expanding understanding about the unique forms of oppression that face trans* faculty are important in re-conceptualizing gender equity. Taken together, I bring participant’s disparate perspectives together under the concept of academic gender justice. In so doing, I argue that an intersectional approach to addressing gender-based oppression is an important mechanism to reduce the negative effects of such oppression.