Diversity survey at work

[EdgeOfACoin]

I had to fill out a diversity survey at work. It asked me what my gender identity was and whether it matched the gender I had been assigned at birth.

I ticked 'other' for the first question and explained that I did not have a gender identity and that 'gender identity' is an unproven theory based on stereotypes. I also pointed out that the survey should be asking about sex not gender, as sex is the characteristic protected under the EA 2010. I said that my sex was female.

Under the question 'does this match the gender you were assigned at birth' I ticked 'no'. (The options were yes and no only, there was no free text box for that question and I couldn't skip it.)

I feel quite nervous, actually. It's an anonymous survey, but I still feel a bit anxious.

I would have also ticked 'no' to the second question, as I was not assigned a gender at birth. I have no record of such a thing happening and if it did I was never told, so to me it's roughly the same probability as having been assigned a royal title at birth.

I also pointed out that the survey should be asking about sex not gender, as sex is the characteristic protected under the EA 2010. I said that my sex was female.

TBF I think it's perfectly plausible for a diversity survey to ask if people ID as transgender or not. They should just ask it properly.

Good on you for making your point and your objections to this erasure of the Sex category on the survey form, despite your worry about possible repercussions.

It is shocking in this day and age, and ironic really, considering the subject of the survey, that a female employee has to summon up nerve and will to claim her status in a form which is designed to deny her the facility to do so.

Shame on Parliament and governments for bringing about and continuing to allow this appalling disempowerment of women in employment, 45 years after the Sex Discrimination Act

It's worth mentioning that no one HAS to complete diversity surveys, there is no mandatory need for them and you should be able to ignore them.

It is great though to point out how many of the questions are unanswerable.

EdgeOfACoin I wonder if we work at the same place! Ive just done same think and also spent a bit of time feeling anxious about having done so...but these things have to be challenged

I recently wrote "no, my sex was observed at birth" on a work survey. Language matters.

A friend had a survey recently about the sex differences in how businesses were managing staff working remotely with all the Covid events (with reference to childcare, looking after older relatives, mental health). It was from an organisation that was initially set up for women. They asked what your gender was (with an awful lot of options and an open text box, haha). Sex wasn’t asked (even though in the cover note they said if was open to men and women).

I saw another one (survey) which asked for gender identity. ‘Intersex’ was an option for that question. Again, sex not asked.