The Corporate Closet The Professional Lives of Gay Men in America

With an expansion that provides a new section on resources and companies, James D. Woods reveals the trials and tribulations that gay men face in order to navigate, and even conceal, their sexuality in corporate life.

While most believe that professional conduct is, or should be, separated from sexuality, corporate America is suffused with sexual assumptions.

From its offices to its boardrooms, heterosexuality is continuously on display, from family photos to personnel policies that award health benefits to spouses and children, pressuring employees to align themselves with the “normal” expectations of being a corporate employee.

Drawing on hundreds of interviews with men across the country in a variety of positions and companies, from chief executives to recent college graduates, James D. Woods shares the strategies that those different from the assumed role of being a corporate heterosexual, white man must use in order to survive the corporate world. By exploring the “sexual culture” of corporate organizations, Woods gives readers a glimpse into the lives of gay professionals and the difficult choices that they face daily.

James D. Woods is the author of The Corporate Closet.