Call me Beki: a probe on gender empowerment and expression of gays and transgender women in business processing outsourcing.

Abstract

This paper tries to develop a deeper understanding of the experiences of gays and transgendered women and to discover strategies in coping with pressures in their workplace. The researcher have proven that there is gender empowerment and enhanced gender expression of effeminate gays and transgender women workingin BPOs relative to other jobs in the country. However, the researcher also noted that there is still gender discrimination in the workplace. BPOs therefore only minimize and reduce the gender gap between men, women and LGBTs. Through a femist perspective, the researcher identified different forms of empowerment of purple collar workers in BPOs. The Business Processing Outsourcing was described in the paper to substantiate the different forms of discrimination of gays and transgender women workers. By complementing the human rights-based approach with feminism, the researcher was able to assess the participation, empowerment, discrimination and job equality of purple collar workers. One distinct feature of the research is its discovery of purple unions. Purple union is described when LGBT employees of BPOs form interconnected groups to strengthen their lobbying capacity to their companies. Purple union is an engagement of LGBT organizations within BPO companies that evaluates the current situation of LGBT employees. Through purple unions, LGBT employees are able to check and equalize benefits given by other BPO companies to their employees by their collective lobbying to other companies which are still stagnant in gender development policies.