Reflection On The Boundaries Of Application Boxes

The Boundaries of Application Boxes While I was filling out my application to The University of Charleston’s School of Pharmacy summer program for undergraduate students I was stopped abruptly when reaching the biographical information section. The speedy pace with which I was writing in my emergency contact information, such as my address and telephone number was disrupted when I reached the gender identification section. The gender ID section contained more than the two ordinary male and female boxes to be filled in. The sight of three boxes alone was enough to throw off my focus from the application. The third box, which was on a separate line that the other two boxes, read “transgender”. This was the first time I had seen more than two options available for gender selection. After my initial excitement that this was a step toward inclusivity, I began to question whether or not this gender identification section was appropriately accommodating to the transgendered community. The difficult question of what to label transgendered people is a problem that bears numerous implications for …show more content…
Also, employers are prohibited from advertising jobs that target certain genders, races, or socioeconomic statuses, among other demographical data. Despite these laws discrimination has been seen based on a number of these factors. Similar to the gender box the race box on job applications provides another opportunity for discrimination. Statistically significant data continues to accumulate with regard to discrimination against African American’s applying to jobs. Specifically, applications with stereotypically “black sounding” names are far less likely to be called back for interviews or hired then “nonblack sounding”