A University of Wisconsin–Madison study has shown high rates of workplace sexual harassment experienced by transgender and nonbinary people and uncovered forms of harassment not previously documented in research.
The project is a collaboration between sociology graduate student Mariana Nozela Prado and IDS affiliate Chloe Grace Hart. Nozela Prado and Hart surveyed nearly 1,500 participants, including cisgender women and men as well as transgender women, transgender men, and nonbinary people. Respondents reported their experiences of 25 recognized types of sexual harassment, which includes both unwanted sexual behavior and offensive behavior based on gender. Respondents also answered open-ended questions about their harassment experiences that were not captured by categories within the survey.
The findings are striking: gender minorities reported staggeringly high rates of “gender hostility” (behaviors that convey hostility, exclusion, or reduced status for members of a gender). Over 80% of the transgender and nonbinary people in Nozela Prado and Hart’s sample reported at least one form of gender hostility — exceeding the rates experienced by both cisgender women and cisgender men.
A core goal of the project was to identify forms of sexual harassment unique to transgender and nonbinary people that current surveys don’t capture. Qualitative analyses revealed three previously unrecognized patterns:
Gender objectification — behaviors treating transgender and nonbinary individuals as objects of curiosity, scorn, or denigration because of their gender identity, such as intrusive body-related questions or unwanted touching.
Gender invalidation — actions that refuse to acknowledge or respect a person’s gender identity, such as misgendering.
Derogation of the LGBTQ+ community — actions that construe gender identities outside the cisgender binary as deviant, unnatural, or illegitimate. Actions often target the broader LGBTQ+ community — and particularly transgender people as a group — rather than just the individual.
The study, funded by an Institute for Diversity Science Seed Grant, broadens our understanding of sexual harassment. Dr. Hart explained, “The surveys social scientists use to measure sexual harassment were developed by first asking people about how sexual harassment played out in their own lives, but that initial research focused on the harassment experiences of cisgender people. This research helps us to understand how transgender and nonbinary people are uniquely impacted by sexual harassment.”
Hart and Nozela Prado presented their findings at the Population Association of America Conference in April 2025 and plan to submit their manuscript to a journal for peer review this fall.
Nozela Prado, who analyzed much of the qualitative data, says “leading the data analysis process allowed me to closely witness the variety of experiences respondents shared, and to notice patterns that were unique to transgender and nonbinary individuals. Although these groups are sometimes conflated in empirical analyses–often because of issues with sample sizes — the data show important differences in their experiences of workplace sexual harassment.”
The researchers hope the study will inform interventions that not only improve estimates of the prevalence of harassment but also challenge blind spots about how sexual harassment affects the lives of transgender and nonbinary workers.