I came across my company's trans policy

[IAteMyCrumpetIAteItAllUp]

"Sex refers to the biological designation of a person as either ‘male’ or ‘female’ based on their anatomy (e.g. reproductive organs) and/or their biology (e.g. hormones). Gender refers to the traditional or stereotypical roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women.

...

Gender identity is one’s internal, deeply held sense of one’s gender. For transgender people, their own internal gender identity does not match the sex they were assigned at birth. Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). For some people, their gender identity does not fit neatly into one of those two choices. Unlike gender expression, gender identity is not visible to others."

So it is officially considered unusual for a woman to not want to do stereotypically feminine roles. Perhaps this is why the partnership of my company is 85% male.

At least they've not confused sex and gender!

Those are the only two options for "inclusive" policies. Either make such a mish-mash of sex/gender that no-one can follow what you are saying, or make the correct distinction between the two and confidently tell women that their place is in the kitchen.

Go to the HR department and say that you harboured hopes of one day becoming a partner but if that’s a role not assosciated with women, given that 85% of them are men, do they think you might be trans?

Or if you’re already a partner, tell them you’re worried that you might be trans and can they advise you as you’re holding a stereotypically male role and the policy suggests you might therefore be trans.

based on their anatomy (e.g. reproductive organs) and/or their biology (e.g. hormones)

At least they've not confused sex and gender!

They've given themselves a getout clause for that - 'female hormones' makes you female, so it's not actually as well defined as it should be.

*Gender identity is one’s internal, deeply held sense of one’s gender.

I don't think I have one of those. I'm not sure I ever have.

Have a look at your company's Diversity & Equality policy.

It will be based on The Equality Act 2010 with 9 protected characteristics. One is 'sex' and one is 'gender reassignment' these should be as written. 'gender' & 'gender identity' are not protected characteristics.

See current thread for how this has been corrected for charities (NCH), schools, LAs etc:
www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3404539-Major-childrens-charity-Stonewall-Mermaids-and-gender

Eh? So gender is both a set of external stereotypes and an internal sense of identity? How does that work then?

I thought it was a good description!

The bit I have issue with is Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). as I (and I think a lot of posters on this board) don't have a gender identity. I recognise that other people might assign a gender to me, but I don't experience that as an internal sense of identity.

This is something I think needs more discussion and research. I would love to know how other people experience their sense of self in terms of biological body, gender, masculinity/femininity. The cis gender thing seems to be based on the assumption that people have two senses of themselves: body and gender. If the two senses align, you're cis, and if they don't, you're trans. But many of us don't have that sense of gender and so I think the psychology of it needs to be explored to see what variations exist and how widespread they are.

Well my 'gender' is definitely male in that case. I'm a software engineer, dress like most men in my similarly male dominated work - never a tie but most men don't either, short hair etc.

I’m a woman and I don’t give gender a second thought. I don’t have a sense of gender - I am who I am. I like some typically feminine things and some typically masculine things. This whole gendering thing is harmful. Wish the world would let people get on with being people in all their diversity - it would take a lot of pressure off those who do experience dysphoria.

I think it was Christine Burns (Press For Change) who said something about the fact that following the GRA it is only people who are transgender who have a legal gender identity.

I will try to find the exact wording (may take a while)

The D&I policy refers to "sex" and "gender identity". So halfway right with that! But I've now checked the form for applying for jobs (internal and external candidates), and it does not ask for your sex, but does ask for your gender (for which your options are female/male/transgender/other).

The bit I have issue with is Most people have a gender identity of man or woman (or boy or girl). as I (and I think a lot of posters on this board) don't have a gender identity. I recognise that other people might assign a gender to me, but I don't experience that as an internal sense of identity.

I agree, I think the problem is the word "most". I reckon 90% of the people I know fall within this new agender/non-binary category, and are therefore trans. It's just not correct to view it as a minority experience. I like the way the writer of this piece phrased it aeon.co/essays/the-idea-that-gender-is-a-spectrum-is-a-new-gender-prison - "to call oneself non-binary is in fact to create a new false binary. It also often seems to involve, at least implicitly, placing oneself on the more complex and interesting side of that binary, enabling the non-binary person to claim to be both misunderstood and politically oppressed by the binary cisgender people."

R0wantrees, I'm massively interested to see what Christine Burns said about that if you can find it. I've been trying to track down the source of my legal gender (statute/case law/birth certificate/other) and am not having much luck. How do I know what I am able to transition to if I can't specify what I currently am?