University project on beliefs around gender identity

[PawResearcher]

Hi — I hope it’s okay to post this here.

I'm a student at Durham University, and I would really love to hear your perspectives on the project I'm doing about people’s beliefs on gender identity and what influences them. A couple of years ago, I got some really helpful responses through Mumsnet on a different project. I know this is a great place to go to for some really thoughtful responses.

I’m running a short, anonymous survey, and I’m hoping to hear a wide range of opinions, so all perspectives are welcome.
It takes about 10–15 minutes and does not collect personal information or emails.
If you’d like to take part, here’s the link:
https://forms.gle/NDAsGBgR3hAxYGtc6

I'll come back when I've finished the project and give an update to those interested.

Thank you very much to anyone who participates — your input is really appreciated!

You’re a human right?

All I do is work with humans.

Sure, but I don’t need to be lead by the nose.

Might be a bit cynical due to working for an organisation that has spent ££££ that it can’t afford on consultants for user questionnaires that have produced the square root of fuck all.

I look forward to seeing your results posted back here. Best Wishes in your research. x

Christ. Survey design is like copywriting, clearly - everyone seems to think they can do it without knowing the first thing about it.

Christ indeed.

Which is exactly what I think every time I see my organisation’s latest attempt at a public engagement survey.

Fuck my life.

It’s quite literally my job.

Yeah, that’s the feedback I give every time we waste even more money on these things. We’re a charity, so that makes it even worse.

I have done the survey but did not fill out gender identity (as I don’t have one) also just left my email blank. I think the question about transphobia is the most weird. What is transphobia???? Not believing you can change sex?

Yes, that’s my point.

I don't know. That's strange but also very loaded.

I think definitions were needed to answer questions. However, good to see some research. Will be interesting to see range of people answering

Hello Op,
I've completed the survey, thanks for posting it and I too would be really interested in the findings - will you be able to post a link to them here when the time comes?
Additionally I've been really interested to read the comments here, particularly on the man woman gender question and the idea of getting opinions as opposed to a yes or no.
I'm now wondering more about the phrasing of this question.

Thank you for taking the time to fill out my survey.

The phrasing of the questions was really difficult for me because I wanted them to be clear, but also phrased in a way that would allow people with a wide range of views to be comfortable answering. I recognise that the wording has upset some people on both sides of the debate; however, it feels somewhat inevitable. I'm really pleased with the response to the survey, and I'm incredibly grateful for the thoughtful responses to the open-ended questions.

I'd be very happy to share my results at the appropriate time. I feel like it's the least I can do to thank people for putting in the effort to reply to my survey.

@PawResearchercould you please advise when you are closing your survey? I would not be able to look at it until mid-dec at the earliest.

Could you also please advise, High level fine, where else you are obtaining responses from. I'm a data manager and believe that mumsnet users would tend to be more gender-critical, so just asking on here is likely to distort your data responses.

It’s a survey for an undergrad dissertation - it’s highly unlikely there was much input on qualitative research methodology or research ethics (I used to teach both at postgraduate level). And you appear to be critical of the method, rather than the methodology. Don’t be too hard on the OP.

I will need to discuss with my supervisor when it is best to close my survey. However, I have a very rich dataset already, so it will most likely be at some point this week. Thank you for your comments about data quality; it's an important point. This survey is circulating on multiple platforms, particularly Reddit, which has led to a very wide range of perspectives from both gender-critical and gender-affirming individuals.

Thanks for being so open to answering questions, @PawResearcher

Undergraduate dissertation standards have clearly gone downhill in that case! During my dissertation many moons ago it was expected that we would engage with these things, and if we were going to have an open-to-all survey there would need to be some hefty rationale around that. Similarly with ethics, all undergraduate dissertations required departmental ethics approval, and in some cases, particularly when involving children/under eighteens, you would have to present to the univeristy ethics committee. I had to get ethics approval for an essay for a regular module!

A decent supervisor would have tried to limit the research pool somewhat. That way the numbers are much more manageable, you have more control and at least some ability to verify who answers, and you aren't dealing with anonymous anybodies on the internet who can complete the survey multiple times.

If people want to do the survey, fine. If people want to try to provide constructive feedback, fine. I don't think that's my job. It's bad supervision, bad data collection, and bad research.

Thank you for sharing your perspective. I’d like to clarify a few points regarding this survey and its design.

Based on your description, it seems that many of the dissertation standards and ethical procedures from your time are quite similar to those at my university. The survey itself was formally approved by my supervisor, and the dissertation was approved through the full departmental ethics procedure (this has been verified through Mumsnet moderators). All ethical requirements for an undergraduate dissertation were met, and the study does not involve children or vulnerable participants, so additional university-level ethics committee approval was not required.

Regarding the research pool, the study was intentionally designed to reach a large number of respondents in order to capture a wide range of perspectives. This is something I very much had to rationalise to my university, as it was the most effective way to achieve the research aims. Limiting participants would have reduced the diversity of views, which is central to the goals of the study.

You mentioned verifying who answers and preventing multiple submissions. While this is a known limitation, in practice, it is difficult to ensure that each person completes the survey only once without collecting identifying information. This contradicts anonymity, which is particularly important given the polarising nature of the topic.

I’m happy to answer any further methodological questions about why I designed the survey the way I did. That way, constructive feedback can focus on the methodology itself, once the full rationale and ethical considerations are understood.

A quick check shows you've edited the demographic info on the first page. Your survey did allow under 18s originally. It also had some rather basic missing demographic options and some spelling mistakes, which appear to have been quietly removed. Not a great start.

Without defining terms it's not possibly to meaningfully engage with the material, for either the respondent or the researcher. Everyone will be talking at cross-purposes. For example, you have a question about the political spectrum. An American who thinks of themselves as 'left-wing' could really be more aligned to a British centre-right. I'm quite politically engaged but I don't consider myself to be one or the other. There's a 'prefer not to say' but that's just inaccurate, I would say but there's no option.

Anyway, it's not my job to teach you basic data collection or data analysis.

The under-18 option was an inadvertent oversight on my part and was removed very quickly before reaching the under-18 audience. I will note this mistake transparently in the methodology. Minor spelling errors and early adjustments to demographic options were corrected promptly and will be transparently documented in the methodology. These are standard, non-substantive changes that do not affect the survey’s validity or the quality of the data.

Regarding the seven-point left–right scale, this is a standard method used in surveys such as the European Social Survey and World Values Survey. While those surveys track countries, the principle of allowing respondents to self-place along a multi-point spectrum is widely applicable. It captures political extremity, which is analytically relevant even as a minor factor in this anthropology dissertation focused on gender beliefs. Alternative methods, such as binary categories or single-issue questions, would fail to capture nuances in political orientation and the variation in extremity, reducing the ability to explore correlations with attitudes toward gender. While international differences in political labels exist, self-placement on a multi-point spectrum remains a widely accepted method for capturing nuanced attitudes.

While I understand that providing detailed methodological explanations is not required for every reader, I have included them here to ensure that the rationale and ethical considerations of the survey are clear, so that feedback can focus on substantive aspects of the study.