Vozes da resistência: vivências de pessoas transgêneras e travestis na contabilidade brasileira

Abstract

In Brazil, transgender and travestis people face challenges in gaining access to basic rights such as health, housing, education and employment (Benevides, 2024), and it is the country in which transgender and transvestite people are murdered and commit suicide the most. Because they live on the margins, they also face obstacles in terms of staying in the education system and later entering the labour market, as well as occupying leadership positions. In academic environments, by 2020 only 0.02% of the transgender and transvestite population had managed to access higher education, and as for the labour market scenario, 90% of transgender and transvestite women work compulsorily in prostitution, as companies do not hire them due to structural transphobia present in the organisational culture (Benevides and Nogueira, 2021). In addition to hiring, organisations need to invest in diversity policies aimed at professional retention and advancement, since even though transgender and transvestite people have undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, opportunities to occupy senior positions in organisations are rare (Cândido and Medeiros, 2021; Paniza and Moresco, 2022). Included in this reality is the accounting area, which has environments that reproduce and reinforce an ideal professional and/or student/teacher profile, referring to men, white, cisgender, heterosexual and without disabilities (Círico; Telles; Galvão, 2021; Círico; Silva, 2024; Santiago; Barros; Bonfim, 2019). This scenario therefore reveals the need for actions to include non-cisgender people in academic and business environments in general, and specifically in accounting environments, which are the field of study of this research. To this end, my research aims to answer the following question: What experiences are revealed by the experiences of transgender and transvestite people in Brazilian Accounting? Using Transfeminism (Jesus; Alves, 2012; Jesus et al. 2015; Nascimento, 2021) and Intersectionality (Akotirene, 2019; Carneiro, 2011; Collins; Bilge, 2021; Crenshaw, 1989, 2002; Gonzalez; 2020) as theoretical support, I aimed to problematise, based on the identification of experiences, the experiences of transgender and transvestite people in academic and business accounting environments in Brazil. The thesis is divided into three scientific articles. The research methodology is applied and is characterised, in terms of its objectives, as descriptive-exploratory in nature. I used a qualitative approach to discuss the problem. In article 1, I present a literacy course on gender diversity to be applied in accounting environments, both in the academic and organisational contexts. In article 2, I carry out an Integrative Literature Review to help compile the literature on the experiences of transgender and transvestite people in universities and companies. In article 3, I analyse semi-structured interviews with transgender and transvestite people, contributing to the reframing and construction of a place of belonging for non-cisgender, diverse people, and reflecting on how to make Brazilian academic and organisational accounting environments inclusive and welcoming. The interviews were transcribed using Reshape software and analysed using the Dialogic Thematic Analysis Technique by Silva and Borges (2017), with the presentation of themes, sub-themes and meaning maps according to the accounts shared by the people interviewed. As for the results, I observed that there is an oppressive movement of exclusion and expulsion of transgender and transvestite students and workers in academic and organisational environments, because they do not correspond to the cisnormativity present in these environments. One of the resources used by transgender and travestis people, especially female identities, to access these spaces, in an attempt to avoid suffering prejudice, is cisgender passability. In short, the people interviewed reported negative experiences when living in Brazilian accounting environments, both academic and organisational. For future studies, I see the importance of presenting gender identity categories in an expanded way in accounting research, including transgender people (binary and non-binary) and travestis, and no longer indiscriminately using the term "sex", which is often mistakenly used as a synonym for "gender". In addition, I see the need for accounting environments to (de)construct the oppressive behaviours that are rooted in Brazilian accounting culture, thinking about strategies for transgender and travestis people to access and remain in undergraduate, postgraduate and accounting organisations.