Student being forced to confuse sex and gender in essay or will lose marks

I disagree they were routinely used synonymously until recently.

I studied women’s studies amount others in the late 90s & early 00s. The difference was very clear then,

If there’s been a period of time in between where they’ve been conflated then that’s the change. And it has huge bearing on evaluating older academic studies/texts and so on if students are pushed to conflate or obfuscate with those terms now. Are students only working from academic theory going back a couple of years? Why cut off the centuries prior? It’s very soviet Russia and a rewrite of history. Only without the acknowledgment there’s been a change in regime.

It sounds to me like the essay title has been written by someone who has used the terms sex and gender synonymously. As the vast majority of people did until very recently and as many still do. Unless she's been given an explanation and been told that she is supposed to differentiate between sex and gender for the purposes of the essay then I would assume she is simply supposed to consider biological sex.

I would ask the question of the tutor - "Hi, just for clarity can you confirm that you are asking me to consider the impact of biological sex in this situation? Or are you asking for a consideration of both biological sex and of gender identity (as in the way someone feels about their own sense of identity and the way they like to present to others?). Use of the word "gender" is confusing since it isn't used by people consistently to mean the same thing."

I would say

1. Advise her not to 'sweat the small stuff' as Americans say. Yes she's pissed off and wants to make s stand. In the end though. It's not going to change anything. It's one essay from one student. Her reaction is disproportionate imo.

1. How important is essay? In terms of contributing towards progression or final score.

1. It sounds like a bunged in random thing. Not the focus. Can she include something acceptable to her and call it a day.

1. Science is all about clarity. Definitions. I can't see it would be in any way objectionable to include the definitions that she will be using in her essay for sex and gender. Maximum clarity. And use them both appropriately.

Of course sex and gender do overlap. Eg if plastics factories in X country hire mainly women, no h&s, very low pay. Sex or gender? The gender (sex role) is why they are in that position... Because of their sex.

Can she write something that meets their marking system, that she can also see as reasonable herself from that perspective?

Polymers? With lab work etc? Chemistry or some kind of science then.

You say gender stuff miles away from subject.

Sooo. Guessing.

Best bet is uses for polymers / something to do with pollution or issues with production. History of polymers?

Can't think of much else.

The think about gender seems pretty random if it is an essay about that sort of thing.

One thing for sure though, the University of Bristol comes out of this looking pretty crap

She’s been told to be clear that gender=sex?

And you say she thinks her tutor might be secretly gc?

Em, does that mean the tutor wants her to say woman=female? As in woman=adult human female?

Your first post sounds like pro gender ideology tutor, but saying she thinks tutor is gc makes the instruction gender=sex read differently.

I would just play the game as they want it to get the grade. Only she will lose out if she deliberately chooses the path she's been told will result in her being marked down. Plenty of other battles she can fight in the future, why damage her grade/job prospects etc to make a point nobody will care about.

It’s crap, but pragmatically, the best thing she can do is follow her tutor’s advice and try to get the best grades she can.

I don’t know what the university thinks it will gain from doing this. It’s not exactly winning hearts and minds. GC people might need to play the long game and try to get themselves into the best academic/career positions they can.

What's the degree in?

Can she get the tutor to put it in an email, perhaps by emailing to say, "Can you just confirm your advice that I should not distinguish between the terms sex and gender in the essay entitled...due on...?

And if there's no response she should proceed cautiously using the good advice offered above. Highly unlikely any academic is going to be open about that warning!

But very possible she could be marked down for failing to distinguish the terms!

Obviously you can’t give the question away, but without knowing it, it is really impossible to say.

It only really matters if it is an area where she is going to have to give biological examples to answer the question. For example health and safety rules and pregnancy, war and genocidal rape, environmental degradation and survival rates.

If she is answering a question like that and gets into trouble for giving examples that refer to sex, there is a problem.

If she is just being asked to use gender in the old fashioned sense that there are different outcomes for the sexes, that’s not a problem either.

If she is being asked to use gender as shorthand for gender identity and not use any sex based examples, that is a problem.

I don’t actually think it is necessary to discuss gender identity at all when looking at sex/gender impacts, unless you are forced to by the texts.

FWIW DD is at uni on an arts course and they are still using sex and gender in the old sex = biological sex and gender= gender roles and social outcomes definition.

If you are applying for postgraduate funding it’s not just a matter of a first or a 2.1 - they will be looking at whether you just scraped a first or had a solid or a high one. So not wanting to risk a single mark over this seems wise to me.

The tutor said she couldn't just omit mentioning the subject and she needs to stick to the gender=sex line or she would be marked down.
But it's only one element of one essay in one module in one year. It is unlikely to change her degree classification, surely?
Is there a higher-up that she can talk to? Has she got the tutor's 'advice' in writing for reference, if the time comes.

That's a useful reference ,Embarrassing, thanks

As it is not her area of study, I guess I would recommend she pretend to be fully on board with all that rubbish. It breaks my heart to say so as honesty is very important to me, but under the circs...

I had this issue when doing my degrees and I found a sociology text which stated that sex = biology, gender = roles/stereotypes. I wrote that my use of the terms throughout the essay followed [author's] distinction. That was I was grounding it in scholarship, not my own opinion/standpoint. Never had any negative comments, although I know most of my lecturers thought TWAW.

I would suggest the student presents the SAGER guidelines as justification for the correct use of sex and gender.

Heidari S, Babor TF, De Castro P, Tort S, Curno M. Sex and Gender Equity in Research: rationale for the SAGER guidelines and recommended use. Res Integr Peer Rev. 2016 May 3;1:2. doi: 10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6. PMID: 29451543; PMCID: PMC5793986.

researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-016-0007-6

If she’s doing a humanities course, such as gender studies, she can’t just say “some of these definitions are wrong and rooted in ideology.” As her tutor I would be encouraging her to engage with the different theories and I would expect her to have a solid understanding of the material before going on a critique. She would also need to explain why and how the definitions are wrong for a solid grade.

I think she should trust her tutor's advice and write what's right according to them. It's likely the words are used about identity, not science, or by Americans who don't use English.

A GC young woman, daughter of an old friend, is taking a degree at Bristol University and was required to write an essay in which issues of sex and gender came up. She pointed out to her tutor that the some of the definitions of sex and gender, and the way those words are used in the texts and notes she's been pointed to, are unscientific and inconsistent and based in ideology.

    Then that is exactly what she should discuss in her essay. 

At university, students are EXPECTED to think for themselves, challenge ideas, argue in tutorials etc. It's even fine to put across a criticism of Jane Austen. .. so long as its persuasive and sensible.