Sex and Gender are different and they are both important

[Igmum]

A new article in the Journal of Academic Ethics by Madeleine Munzer, Nicole Jameson, Arianwen Harris, Ciara Curren, Natalie Dinsdale and Karleen Gribble says both sex and gender are important in research and reports women leaving studies when their sex isn't accurately reported. Who'd have thought it eh?

Link to article: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10805-025-09605-3

Abstract of the Article
Including women in research and collecting and disaggregating data on sex is an ethical imperative. However, increasingly gender identity is being prioritised over sex in data collection and language which has ethical implications. In this paper, the authors share their experiences as study participants; a health consumer advocate, patient research advisor, and lay researcher; and academic researchers of engaging with researchers, Human Research Ethics Committees (HRECs), university ethics offices, and editors and reviewers of journals regarding data collection and communication on sex and gender identity. We argue that HRECs, researchers, and publishers must carefully consider the implications of omitting data collection on sex, mandatory and universalising gender identity questions and use of desexed language. We also propose that reduced data collection and disaggregation by sex, universal imposition of gender identity, and use of desexed language in research is decreasing data quality, reducing the willingness of some to participate in research and is culturally imperialistic. Recommendations for HRECs are made and research needs in relation to sex and gender identity are outlined. Respect for women in the conduct of research requires their sex-related experiences and needs are considered and therefore that data on sex is appropriately collected and reported upon.

Coverage in the THES https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/prioritisation-gender-identity-exacerbates-female-data-gap?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=editorial-daily&spMailingID=30835500&spUserID=MTY4NzgzNTQyMzQyNQS2&spJobID=2670729381&spReportId=MjY3MDcyOTM4MQS2

Here's to a future of sensible research

...imposition of gender identity.....is culturally imperialistic...

🎯

Thanks OP.

I think it would be hugely interesting to see how this lands. Because there will be a fuck ton of denial about the importance of segregating this data out by those who are entrenched in beliefs and the ridiculous notion of a ‘female brain’. And of course, by that I don’t mean the obvious ‘brain within a female body’ which should be the only way a brain can be considered ‘female.’

What researchers really need is a serious of sensible, pragmatic questions about both. The census was a missed opportunity here (as well as a gigantic cock up obvs.). It would be genuinely helpful in many surveys to have details of trans - MtF, FtM and detrans (let's not forget today is Detrans Awareness Day) as well as about sex.

Of course the moment we have all of these sensible questions biological women like IW and BU will tick the wrong boxes anyway, which is a different problem.

6 comments on the THES article so far, the first from a TA who is very upset, the others all pro. Tide turning perhaps?

The current MN census handles it rather well I thought - a question about sex, then a question about gender identity which includes the option to say you don’t have one.

What does the TA comment say? Is it just a rant or do they make any effort to engage with the arguments in the article?

Except MN offers a choice of three sexes on the census

Great article, thank you for signposting it OP!

ItsCoolForCats · Today 17:25

What does the TA comment say? Is it just a rant or do they make any effort to engage with the arguments in the article?

He said that it's ahistorical to exclude lady larpers from studies on women. He hasn't replied to anything asking him what he meant by that.

archive link to full text of TES https://archive.is/OguLP

Thanks

🙄

Here you are @ItsCoolForCats

When he says all parties, which all parties is he talking about, because if women are one of the parties, I as a woman am not offended in the slightest by this view.

You know that this is incredibly inaccurate right? There are a fair few differences between a male and a female brain. Where on earth did you get your information that they are the same?

</Opens popcorn/>

What's the third choice? NB? Or DSD?

Which view? That recording sex is ahistorical (that's nonsense) or 'all parties' (which is obscure and suggests more that 2 sexes)?

Intersex

The thing that is different between male and female brains is the volume, shape, the delicacy of fibres, the impact of hormones. Ie. The female brain as formed by the female body.

The difference is not one that male people can claim as they have in the past, when they claim to have a ‘female’ brain. It just isn’t possible for them to have a ‘female’ brain. Do you believe that any male person can have a female brain? If so, please explain how this is possible?

It's shocking the amount of research now that is completely nonsensical because of the switch from sex to GI. I'm in the social sciences and so many articles that would previously have compared male and female now look at GI and compare with previous studies which looked at sex. They are basically comparing apples and oranges.

I reviewed a paper recently that was looking at issues impacting a particular cohort of women and how their lived experience growing up impacted on that experience. They had received a very large federal grant for the research. Except they defined woman as being anyone who identified as one, with a pious statement about inclusivity. So a natal male who transitioned as a adult was deemed to have an equally valid experience of growing up female as a natal female. This paper should have been a desk reject. I advised rejection but I suspect it was published. It was a top journal that I decided to stop reviewing for as I kept seeing this sort of nonsense.

I also have a problem with the option to say i don’t have a gender identity, because i am being made to accept the idea that gender identity exists.

The option should allow me to say I don’t believe in gender identity

Points taken.

Apologies for the lack of clarity. I had just walked in from work and didn’t spend the time to type it out on my phone.

“The thing that is different between male and female brains is the volume, shape, the delicacy of fibres, the impact of hormones”

These are not the only physical differences of course, but examples of some.

“The difference is not one that male people can claim as they have in the past, when they claim to have a ‘female’ brain.”

I mean that these differences are not ones that male people can claim, because they are sex specific due to the shape of the skull etc. I believe that when male people claim to have a ‘female’ brain they are not thinking of the physical aspect of brains, in any case. They refer to how they process information and stimuli.

And here, there is a correlation to the impact of repetitive interests and stimuli (such as the taxi driver study) and hormones. So, a group of male people’s brains that have been exposed to particular hormones and exogenous hormones may share brain similarities to each other’s. These similarities may appear to have further similarities to female people who have brains exposed to the same hormones. Same too with interests and repeated stimuli.

The key here is that those male people who claim to have ‘female brains’ will have similar brain patterns in scans as any other male person who has the same interests and using the same medications. Regardless of whether they have a transgender identity. The readings will fit into the ‘male range’ because they are male brains though.

To state their thoughts as being ‘female’ is based on sex stereotyping. Because their entire life has been experienced as a male. Even when they say they are ‘living as a woman’, they are living as their interpretation of how female adults live. Because their every reaction to their life and how people treat them is interpreted as them being a male person. Just one with the belief they are female when they are not. So to them, they belief they acting in a way that they describe as ‘female’ because of their own sexist stereotyping. And that could include the rejection of what they believe are male stereotypes as much as what they describe as female stereotypes.

Either way, those male people don’t have ‘female’ brains. They still and will always have male brains.

If I get just asked my gender I don’t complete surveys or if important I do but state that I feel it is wrong that I haven’t been asked my sex.