Doing gender and being gendered through occupation: Transgender and non-binary experiences.
Rebecca Swenson, Pam Alldred, Lindsey Nicholls
PMID 40336671WHAT IT FOUND
Transgender and non-binary people described jobs, toilets, changing rooms and gendered activities as making them hide or perform binary gender.
Safe homes, online groups, creative hobbies and chosen spaces let them express identity, but often at emotional cost.
Key findings
01Participants described limiting or adjusting gender expression in public and at work to avoid comments and unwanted attention.
02Role-playing games and online groups helped participants express gender identity in supportive settings.
03Non-binary participants described workplaces and gendered uniforms as especially restrictive because they forced binary presentation.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
Only five people took part, so the findings are accounts of lived experience, not evidence that a treatment works. Participants were English-speaking adults over 18 living in the UK, so the findings may not apply to other countries, ages or language groups. The authors note that a larger group would have included a broader range of transgender and non-binary identities because gender is fluid and complex. The paper names five participants but also refers to four participants in the walking interview and uses Eli and Edie inconsistently, so the exact interview sample is hard to check. The analysis uses a post-human new materialist framework, which the authors say sits in tension with humanist, person-centred occupational therapy language.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. The study was funded by a UK Occupational Therapy Research Foundation Research Career Development grant.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these accounts as proof that occupational therapy improves gender expression. The study reports experiences and barriers; it did not test an intervention or compare outcomes.