Request for Participants - Trans Women in Malta

My name is Karly Naudi and I am a student at the University of Malta, presently reading for a Bachelor’s Degree in Work & HR. I am presently conducting a research study for my dissertation titled “Accessibility to employment for transgender women in Malta”; this is being supervised by Dr. Marceline Naudi. This letter is an invitation to participate in this study. Below you will find information about the study and about what your involvement would entail, should you decide to take part.

I am looking for eight to ten Maltese women, who identify as transgender, to conduct my research. The aim of this study is to better understand what challenges, if any, these women have faced, as well as their experiences whilst seeking employment and maintaining it. Being a Maltese, transgender woman myself, my intention is to compare different experiences and see if the progressive gender laws have in fact made things easier when it comes to finding gainful employment in Malta.

Your participation in this research is voluntary, and if you chose to participate, I will be gathering information through semi-structured interviews, where the topic will be further explored with you. These mentioned interviews will be of approximately one hour in length and will be held via means of a service that is end-to-end encrypted and GDPR compliant. As a participant, you are able to refrain from answering any questions that you do not feel comfortable answering, and you are free to withdraw from the research process, until technically possible, with no penalty. Due to the nature of the questions that I will be asking during the interview, there exists a risk of experiencing discomfort.

Should you experience any psychological discomfort during or after the interview, you can contact Rainbow Support Services on 79430006 for support at no cost.

Data gathered during my research will all be pseudonymised, including the names of any employers, and the video recording will be stored in an encrypted format when downloaded on to my personal laptop. The purpose of the information gathered throughout this research is solely for the use of my dissertation and will only be accessed by myself, my supervisors and examiners should the need for verification purposes arise. As per the General Data Protection Regulation Law, personal data will be discarded immediately once it is no longer needed or in the instance that the participant has withdrawn their consent (Art. 17 GDPR, Art. 19 GDPR).

Participants’ data and pseudonymised data will be kept separate to minimise risk of identification. As per the General Data Protection Regulation Law and the Malta Data Protection Act (2018), participants also retain the right to access, rectify, and where applicable erase the data concerning them (Art. 15 GDPR). You will be asked to sign a consent form, attached, which details your rights and how the data will be used.

Should you require further information regarding this research, please do not hesitate to contact me on karly.naudi.16@um.edu.mt or my supervisor Dr. Marceline Naudi on marceline.naudi@um.edu.mt.

I thank you in advance and I look forward to working with you. Kindest regards,

Karly Naudi