Please help with this email to my CEO re gender/sex

[Bbub]

Hi all, first feminism thread here. The pic shows 2 questions that have featured in a staff survey and I want to take it up with the CEO, please can you read it and make any suggestions?

Do my points make sense? Does my objection even make sense?!

Subject: the Equality Act (2010) and recent staff surveys

Dear [CEO]

Regarding the all staff survey I was recently invited to complete, questions 37 – 44 appear to be centred on the protected characteristics as defined in The Equality Act (2010)

The Equality Act identifies 9 protected characteristics:

Age
Disability
Gender reassignment
Marriage and civil partnership
Pregnancy and maternity
Religion or belief
Race
Sex
Sexual orientation

I am really concerned that the below questions fail to capture data on employees’ biological sex, as they put the importance on collecting responses on gender (which is not a protected characteristic).

[see image]

For example, if someone selects “non-binary”, “prefer not to say” or “other” in question 38, no matter what answer they select for question 39, we never get to record their biological sex, whether they want to disclose it or not. That precious data on the protected characteristics of [organisation] employees is lost.

Women are discriminated against in in the workplace, and in general, based on their sex (which cannot change) and not their gender (which people identify as a feeling and can change). This approach to questioning means that we will never understand the pay gap between men and women, for example. If a biological man identifies as the female gender and we don’t record their sex, that skews the data we have on women’s pay.

I understand the goal behind these questions is to be inclusive around gender identity, but the approach is flawed as a protected characteristic (sex) will not be recorded correctly as a result.

I look forward to hearing from you, and happy to discuss or provide further information.

Kind regards
Bbub

assigned female even

I won't answer the question 'what is your gender identity' as this is an alien concept to me. I don't have one. Therefore I answer prefer not to say. Thus a question saying does my assigned at birth correspond, you will not have an answer.

I have no record of any gender being assigned to me at birth, unless they are stating that sex and gender are interchangeable, which is problematic.
My medical records at birth are not public information.

Anyone answering "non binary" or "other" won't have their sex recorded either.

Really they shouldn't have any reason to ask what someone's "gender identity" is for equality purposes, as that's not the protected characteristic. If this is meant to align with the Equality Act, they need to ask about sex (which would be biological sex for anyone who doesn't have a GRC, otherwise legal sex for those who do) and whether the person considers him/herself to have the PC of gender reassignment. If beyond that they also want to know people's specific gender identity, as I understand it under GDPR they would need a good reason for asking, as it's not a PC so not relevant for equality monitoring.

The problem with 'assigned at birth' is that the purpose of it is to chip away the concept of sex as an immutable biological fact. It suggests sex is a concept that can be applied using a judgement based purely on observation of a human body at birth. My sex was determined at conception, not assigned at birth. Accuracy is important.

The driver for that language is to allow gender to replace sex, and as gender can theoretically be chosen, it renders gender-based anything (rights, protections, measuring of pay gaps etc) utterly pointless. The only meaningful way to protect women is to accept binary sex that cannot be changed.

The last two work questionnaires I've done have asked about gender identity and I ticked prefer not to answer. One also asked 'are you trans?' without even using the full word 'transgender' (one assumes they were referring to that) Neither asked about sex, even sex assigned at birth.

Don’t actually have a gender per se... and my sex was noted at birth.

Agree with lots of posters commenting along the lines of they don't have a gender identity and sex was not assigned..... That was my issue as well.

I nearly led with the "I don't believe I have a gender so I can't answer this point" but I'm glad I didn't. I'm hoping to challenge that language as a follow up.

Sorry I can't tag anyone but thank you for all the suggestions and yes I'm going to be careful about the wording of why I'm contacting him specifically. I might also throw in some comment about how proud I am to work for the company as they value diversity and inclusion so highly....I genuinely do love working there.

This is a general staff survey, so I have no evidence this impacts on their reporting to quality commission about sex, but I'm going to try and bring that up seperately as well.

you are making rather a large assumption there! Do you think it is acceptable for a company to deliberately avoid recording sex data?

Employers can't avoid recording sex, it's a mandatory HMRC field for payroll which is captured at the time of checking ID when you join. There are only two options, male and female.

The survey OP has received is optional monitoring data. There's no need to complete it at all.

If you’re still taking edits, I’d soften the “discriminated against in the workplace” because it could be read that you’re accusing your company of discrimination.

Otherwise, it’s good.

I don’t have a gender identity but I’m female. How would I fill that in?

I work for a gov department and this came up in the annual staff survey.

I voiced my opinion in a similar fashion to you, but also expressed that I have no idea what 'gender identity is' and was not 'assigned a gender at birth'.

Added that it seemed bizarre noting I am on a Women's mentoring scheme that recognises that women can still be discriminated against in the workplace....and now we aren't capturing key data on women

Employers can't avoid recording sex, it's a mandatory HMRC field for payroll which is captured at the time of checking ID when you join. There are only two options, male and female
The survey OP has received is optional monitoring data. There's no need to complete it at all

Thanks for that, thought it was the case you still had to record sex, wasn't sure though
Which is why surely it's up to you (general you) whether you fill optionals in or not then?
Just put prefer not to say if you really object to, or don't have, a gender identity.
That way everybody is recorded?

Glad to hear that sex is being recorded somewhere... If that is the case though I still want to query why they have chosen these type of questions.

Will have to reword further...

What's annoying though Quaagers, is IF the survey COMPELS you to answer the question before being able to get to the next one. Even ticking prefer not to say implies that being asked about gender identity is of any importance to anyone other than a few people. It's manipulative and deliberately so by those in D and I as it imposes their identity agenda. Abstaining from playing D and I game by refusing to complete the survey is my preference and I would tell the CEO quite happily.

Doubt you will agree with that statement Quaagers.

What's annoying though Quaagers, is IF the survey COMPELS you to answer the question before being able to get to the next one. Even ticking prefer not to say implies that being asked about gender identity is of any importance to anyone other than a few people.

OK, seriously not trying to be "fick", but I haven't come across it in RL yet - so you say it compels you to answer the question before getting to the next one?
What happens if you say you prefer not to say?
Can you get to the next question just as easily as if you specified?
If so not really seeing why that would be a problem?

@PortraitOf44

I agree that I think you’re wasting your time here. Clearly your beliefs and outlook do not align with that of the company, why do you continue to work there? I think you and the company would be much better off if you found somewhere else to work!

If the company were to ignore data on disability status of their employees would you say the same thing?

I would fall off my chair if you did see it Quaagers.

Just put prefer not to say if you really object to, or don't have, a gender identity.

But it’s not “prefer not to say”.
It’s “I don’t have a gender identity because it’s not a belief I subscribe to”.

Exactly Family, that's why I got stuck trying to answer this set of Qs on another recent survey.

And the fact that these Qs are in the same part as those on age, disability and ethnicity (actual protected characteristics) make this inclusion of gender very misleading. It's really fucking annoyed me. If they want to ask about gender fair enough but disregarding the importance of sex is absurd to me

Is it possible to get to the next section without ticking any of those boxes?

Nope they are mandatory questions

So that is the issue. Gender identity is not a protected characteristic and you are being compelled to answer as if you have one.

The question is a leading question which is not good practice in a survey.

It's a good email OP. I have spoken up at my workplace and nothing bad has happened. My workplace does already correctly identify the protected characteristics.