Corporate Closet: The Professional Lives of Gay Men in America - Paperback

by James D. Woods (Author)

With an expansion that provides a new section on resources and companies, James D. Woods reveals the trials and tribulations that gay men face in order to navigate, and even conceal, their sexuality in corporate life.

While most believe that professional conduct is, or should be, separated from sexuality, corporate America is suffused with sexual assumptions.

From its offices to its boardrooms, heterosexuality is continuously on display, from family photos to personnel policies that award health benefits to spouses and children, pressuring employees to align themselves with the "normal" expectations of being a corporate employee.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with men across the country in a variety of positions and companies, from chief executives to recent college graduates, James D. Woods shares the strategies that those different from the assumed role of being a corporate heterosexual, white man must use in order to survive the corporate world. By exploring the "sexual culture" of corporate organizations, Woods gives readers a glimpse into the lives of gay professionals and the difficult choices that they face daily.

Back Jacket

While most of us believe that professional conduct is, or should be, asexual, corporate America is in fact suffused with sexual assumptions. From its offices to its boardrooms, heterosexuality is continuously on display: alluded to in conversation and family photos, symbolized by wedding rings, and endorsed by personnel policies that award benefits to spouses and children. For the estimated ten percent of the population that is gay, including the millions of gay professionals in the corporate world, the "sexual culture" of these organizations forces a series of difficult choices. Now, drawing on hundreds of interviews with men all across the country and in different kinds of companies, from chief executives to recent college graduates, James Woods explores the professional lives of gay men and the various strategies they have developed for managing sexual identity at work. Whether they disguise their sexuality, reveal it, or try to avoid the subject altogether, each choice has its consequences and benefits and has profound implications for their careers, their companies, and their colleagues. This pathbreaking book explores the significance of each alternative, and in tracing the process by which gay men make the choice it illuminates the stressful realities of gay life in corporate America. In the short run, it is the men's self-esteem, productivity, and job satisfaction that suffer from the struggle of accommodating to heterosexual norms. But in the long run, the sexual culture of the workplace affects all professionals. Woods' fascinating inquiry explores the dynamics of sexuality in professional life and the way it shapes our own self-definitions, values, and most deeply held ideasabout work. As the workplace becomes increasingly diverse, it is time for us to look more closely at the boundaries between the sexual and the professional, and the many ways in which these worlds overlap.

Author Biography

James D. Woods is the author of The Corporate Closet.