Heteronormativity at Work: A case study of the workplace experience of queer employees

Abstract: Queer employees are experiencing heteronormativity in the Swedish workplace. The aim of this thesis is to examine how queer lives are limited at work by the social norms regulating sex, gender and sexuality. The object of this study is an international Swedish industrial company where I have conducted interviews with queer employees. From a poststructural standpoint I am conducting queer research to analyze the workplace experience, guided by the concepts of heteronormativity and subversion drawn from Judith Butler’s theories. Data was viewed through thematic analysis and the coding process was assisted by NVivo. I find heteronormativity is limiting queer lives within the workplace mainly by a lack of visibility of queer in discourse, foreclosing the possibility to exist outside of heteronormativity within this workplace context. Being queer is articulated as incompatible with high performance and a prosperous career and limiting identity categories are constructed by the attachment of stereotypical meanings to queer sexualities.