The lesbian corporate experience

By means of semi-structured interviews, this study investigates the work experience of 13 lesbians employed by large corporations. The respondents, who were already discredited for being women, had to manage the further potentially discrediting information of their lesbianism. The author examines the strategies used to manage such information. Because these strategies frequently included deception, the respondents then had to design a series of counter-strategies to avoid seeing themselves as dishonest. Each woman's strategy was unique; nevertheless, certain perceptions and approaches were common to all the respondents.