Starring Students: Gender Performance at a Women’s College

The purpose of this qualitative study is to better understand how gender is constructed at a women’s college. Specifically, the researchers use Judith Butler’s (1990) work on performativity to frame how members of the campus community perceive transgender students are integrated into the college. Through semi-structured interviews with faculty, staff, and students, three themes emerged: transgender students are both invisible and hyper-visible and they experience a certain degree of oppression in their lives, oppression that carries with it unique circumstances due to the location of this study. The influence of these themes on the campus community and on what it means to be a women’s college when gender is considered as performance are explored. Finally, implications of the findings for research and practice are also considered.