Transitioning In Academia

Transitioning at work is always hard, your job hangs in the balance and when you are a teacher it can be even harder because you have to deal with the parents.

Becoming a Woman
The Chronicle of Higher Education
By Paige Flanagan
November 15, 2017

Imagine the complexity of making the transition from the gender identity assigned at birth to a different one. I am certain that some of my colleagues question my sanity for embarking on such a process. I questioned my sanity if I didn’t.

Transitioning in academe, as in any employment sector, involves both difficulties and advantages, drawbacks and conveniences. My experience has been generally positive, and, by writing this, I hope to assist others who may be facing this life change. Cis readers, I hope that this sheds a sliver of light on what people who transition experience and that you discover ways you can be more supportive when the time comes. The academy will increasingly face this matter with faculty and staff members as well as students — maybe even presidents. I have chosen to focus on my personal perspective as a librarian in my 15th year on the faculty of a small, private, liberal-arts college.

She goes on to list the pro’s and con’s of transitioning on the job as a librarian.

On the plus side. Among the biggest advantages to transitioning at a small college or university are the personal relationships, the relatively liberal environment, the increased emphasis on diversity, the close interactions with students. Each of those factors has certainly aided me in my journey.
[…]
On the down side. You will need to take advantage of benefits available to you because your transition will certainly present adversity. There is much out of your control, including the emotions and feelings of others. Those who are on the job market, unfortunately, will have even a lower degree of control. Alex Hanna stated it best when she wrote that transgender people on the academic job market need double the amount of strategies for coping.

I imagine that there are a other issues that complicate transitioning on the job, the first issue that I think about is how well you can integrate into society. Those who cannot blend in with the general population face a lot more discrimination then someone you cannot tell is trans. The other issue is that transitioning as a teacher for K-12 have to face hostile parents. Just like students who transition and face aggressive parents so do the teachers when they transition.

As she said trying to find a job are you transition is a lot harder than before you transition. When you are looking for a job companies can find a thousand ways to not offer you a job, but when you transition on the job especially after you have a couple of job reviews under your belt is a lot harder.