NON-HETEROSEXUAL PEOPLE´S CAREER CHOICES IN GENDER-SEGREGATED WORK CULTURE

My research involves the study of non-heterosexuality and its role in young people's career and occupational choices as well as their experiences in the educational system and working life. I will analyse the relevance or irrelevance of sexuality and gender to the choices young people make. My main focus will be on young people from the ages of 18 to 25 years, in other words the period when adolescents typically make choices regarding their education and professional future. I am interested in young peoples` educational and professional choices and work life experiences from the point of view of heteronormativity and non-heterosexuality. I have interviewed 30 non-heterosexual young people from around the country of Finland in 1996. In Spring 2003 I have interviewed six of them again. I will also use data from the survey and interviews collected by me and other researchers in the project I was involved with in a project on Sexual and Gender Minorities at Work funded by the Ministry of Labour and European Social Fund and there was conducted a survey with 728 respondent who belong to sexual minorities (lesbian, gay, bisexual) and 108 respondents who belong to gender minorities (transgender) on their working life experiences. In my presentation I am especially interested in discussing on the dilemma of non-heterosexual persons need to explain their sexuality and gender as not meaningful in general level on the other hand and on the other hand their professional and career choice processes seem to be interlinked with their sexualities and genders in many ways. It seems that rather many non-heterosexual persons have a potential to choose their professions against the gendered norms in a highly gender-segregated culture such as is the Finnish one.