Parkrunners! Parkrun survey

[Parkrunners]

If anyone is a parkrunner and has a survey from them, I'd urge you to fill it in. There are two free text sections which provide an opportunity to tell them exactly what the impact of their sexist policy decision not to protect the female sex category has been. They have clearly commissioned this survey to gather data on the mental health and motivation and self esteem and self achievement benefits of Parkrun, as well as its competitive benefits and self-competition benefits, but none of that has been protected for women and girl runners who have effectively been told that Parkrun cannot be bothered to collect accurate sex category data for them, because we somehow don't count. What is it meant to do to the motivation and mental health of female runners to be told we are so second class that our sex category doesn't matter and can be dispensed with?

As a middle aged woman, I am particularly pissed off as the only way I can tell if my running performance is declining, maintaining or improving is to compare myself to others in the same age or sex category. And I can only do this if the sex category is protected.

I am really sick of Parkrun both knowing full well the importance of age and sex data for running and for their Parkrun model, and knowing full well they cannot remove this as the men would not stand for it, whilst also pretending none of this matters and they are just a fun little social run when they need to pretend its ok to record runners under gender identity. Parkrun are trying to maintain a position of both recording this data and pretending it doesn't matter. This is nonsensical.

But they do collect that data, why would it change anything if they required biological sex?
The point is unrelated, if they choose not to publish results that their choice and probably the end fir them but in any case it’s irrelevant to the point about registering biological sex.

I don't see it as irrelevant.

I see it as the crux of the issue. Parkrun wants to work on a gender basis. If it cannot continue as a mass participation event on the current basis, then it's not going to be changing its ethos, it's going to be removing all elements which mean participants can use it in any way than a mass participation event. So that means abolishing results tables and sending individuals data from which the only comparison they can make is with their own previous performance.

Yes, of course it could be done differently. But parkrun has very clearly stated how it wants to do it. And I don't think their stated position can be overlooked. Because at the end of the day, it is their event, their choice of ethos and their decision.

Unfortunately it'll also mean the death of the scraper apps in their current form and therefore the easy way to check how you are doing on all the unofficial challenges and indices

That is my original question, what is the point of them categorizing by gender, there is absolutely no point to it.

@AuntieStella

I mean what’s the point in looking at results as a table by sex when they aren’t by sex.

It’s like categorizing something by race (for example to limit discrimination) but allowing people to identify as any race they want. The categories are worthless, skew results and can actually do more damage than good.

Well, there is no results table by sex.

Parkrun emailed all registered parkrunners making its gender-based position clear (along with various other changes to the T&Cs) and stated that continuing to parkrun after the date they came in to force is an action that gives your consent to them (all of them, not just the gender one)

BTW: I don't mean to defend parkrun - I'm just repeating their clear position on their preferred courses of action. Which includes abolishing the publication of results.

Name one unique characteristic that “female gender” people have that they do not share with “male gender.” A stereotypical dress or pink leggings?
There is no unique characteristic that only female gender people have so why bother categorizing by gender, it’s not a category.

Maybe they could categorize vegan and carnivore. At least they do have a unique characteristic and therefore can be categorized.

Just because parkrun have now made this their policy, does not mean that female runners cannot campaign to change it. As I said up thread, many of the volunteers would have been runners who would prefer parkrun to attempt to protect the female category. Whereas, as per their policy linked up thread, they have not.

So, while parkrun has this policy now, many of the people who helped in building parkrun's success would likely support the changes to protect the female category. Surely, if such a policy was suggested and the majority stated that they would prefer the female category to remain only for female people, parkrun would consider and review this again?

Just because they changed it recently, doesn't mean they can't change it again with feedback. And if enough people feed back to them that they would prefer this, that they will stop volunteering, that they feel that their 'positive benefits' of parkrun are diminished because of this policy, there will be pressure to make this change.

Of course, to do this, those who want to campaign to change the policy need to be able to discuss the issues without being admonished, denigrated and vilified.

This thread is about using this survey to feedback on this issue using the free text fields. Here it is, in the first paragraph of the OP:

"If anyone is a parkrunner and has a survey from them, I'd urge you to fill it in. There are two free text sections which provide an opportunity to tell them exactly what the impact of their sexist policy decision not to protect the female sex category has been. They have clearly commissioned this survey to gather data on the mental health and motivation and self esteem and self achievement benefits of Parkrun, as well as its competitive benefits and self-competition benefits, but none of that has been protected for women and girl runners who have effectively been told that Parkrun cannot be bothered to collect accurate sex category data for them, because we somehow don't count. What is it meant to do to the motivation and mental health of female runners to be told we are so second class that our sex category doesn't matter and can be dispensed with?"

Somehow though, somewhere along this thread it has felt like some people have decided that this survey is not an appropriate feedback mechanism. Or so it has seemed from some of the comments.

Realised this was supposed to close yesterday but the link still works for me. I can only see one free text box for feedback - someone said there two? It’s the one where it says: If there is anything else you would like to mention about the impact of parkrun on your health and wellbeing, please write your comments here.

is that where everyone has put their feedback?

Yes, I popped mine in there school.