According to a recent study from Business.com, there is "clear bias" against nonbinary people in the job market, with employers expressing blatant discrimination when given a resume that uses they/them pronouns.
The three-phase study, published earlier this month, revealed that 80 percent of the 400 nonbinary people researchers spoke with believed that their gender identity would hurt their chances of finding a job.
Additionally, 180 employers received two identical resumes from the researchers. The names on both resumes were gender-neutral, but only one of them included the pronouns they/them.
“Our experiment revealed that the resume with nonbinary pronouns received less interest from employers and fewer requests for interviews or phone screens,” researchers said.
In the third stage of the study, researchers contacted hiring managers directly to learn why they were less interested in the resumes that used they/them pronouns. “When we asked what, if anything, the applicants could improve about their resumes, several hiring managers revealed blatant biases and even bigotry against nonbinary job seekers,” researchers wrote.
Employers can make their hiring processes more inclusive for people who identify as nonbinary by diversifying search teams, using inclusive language in job postings, and giving job applicants the opportunity to self-identify during the interview process. Researchers also suggest that employers hire outside consultants or in-house diversity, equity, and inclusion experts to aid in the hiring process.