Any academics: how do I tackle research re sex/gender

"I am a woman; this is different from my sex when I was born" rather than acknowledging that "I was born a boy".

Why just when they were born? If it is so enormously important to record that someone has changed sex then surely the timing is relevant? When forms ask your address they don't ask if you've moved since birth do they, they want the date.

We all know what birth sex is, it's an understood term.

Do we? Is it? If I said to my DM what's your birth sex she wouldn't have a clue what I meant. She would say "eh?"

So is she disingenuous or just oblivious to identity politics?

Are you asking what sex I was when I gave birth?

My guess is 'female', but even that is up for grabs these days!

Portnlemon

Don't be disingenuous. We all know what birth sex is, it's an understood term.

My thinking is, it is much harder for a transperson to tick a box that says I was biologically born male (for example) than to tick a box which acknowledges their lived reality and that this is not their birth sex.

I think it is very different in terms of dignity and therefore likely accuracy of reporting to have a question acknowledging "I am a woman; this is different from my sex when I was born" rather than acknowledging that "I was born a boy".

Were you biologically born male/man female/ woman.

I am a man / woman (please indicate)
Is this your birth sex? Yes/no

Would that work?

I often tick 'other' and there is an explanation box. I write 'adult human female, otherwise known as 'woman' and oppressed as such'.

If you join the NHS vaccine registery, they ask the questions very clearly - what biological six were you registered at birth then what gender do you identify with
It's worth registering just to see wording and then 'why we need to ask'
I used it when editing a workplace questionnaire recently and said 'as per NHS definition'

OP you might look at Alice Sullivan's work (you can find her on Twitter) about the importance of retaining Sex as a category - she's arguing for this for the next Census, and getting shit piled on her from on high.

But her work is excellent.

I think you could ask for sex ie Male /Female

Then, if you wanted, you could ask about 'gender identity'

"Is your gender identity the same as the sex you were observed at birth?"
and give the following possibilities:

Yes
No
I do not have a gender identity

I fill in surveys online quite often and if the question is a gender one, I always tick 'other' and write 'my sex is female' in the box.

If you are instructed to have a gender question please can you at least make it optional so people like me who refuse to play the gender game don't get excluded from research because we can't skip the question.

This. Otherwise we're obviously going to nope out of it.

That is a very good idea. You could have an explanation that you are looking at protected characteristics and link to the EA.

Yes, do this.

I filled out one recently that asked 'what is your sex?' with male and female as the options, and then something to the effect of 'do you have the protected characteristic of gender reassignment?' with yes, no, or prefer not to say. I was very impressed by that, and ethics panels can't argue with the Equality Act.

I'm not doing empirical research myself at the moment, but I know that my heart sinks every time I see survey questions asking for 'gender' or 'gender identity', usually with a long list of options. It's so common in social science especially.

How about sex recorded at birth?
Nicely neutral.

And then an optional question on gender with a free text box.

I think you need to be clear on sex v gender. Perhaps ask for both?
Sex - female/male
Gender - woman/man/trans/other (specify) ?

I go with sex, then female/male/prefer not to say.

Are you a prostrate-haver?

Yes
No

otherwise it is pointless asking the question

it should just come down to 'Are you human?'

Gronky Sat 01-Aug-20 19:12:34
You could ask for 'sex assigned at birth' and 'gender identity' if you're really concerned about treading carefully.

I am a woman. I don't have a gender identity. I am a woman
I wasn't assigned female at birth. I was observed female at birth.

A survey I was interested in (and who, from it's premise I think was interested in answers from people like me) asked which gender I identified as. I didn't bother with the survey. I am not interested in false statistics gained from asking irrelevant questions like that.

The second was one I am very interested in, this didn't ask the question until the end. It did, however, give the option 'other' which is what I opted for as I wasn't assigned a sex at birth. Despite my interest if this question had been asked at the beginning I would not have completed it.

I don't want statistics skewed by people identifying as the opposite sex. Options should be biological or on original birth certificate. This can be further divided/clarified beyond this if necessary but the first division should be biological.

I am not interested in any survey which div