Fuming about this survey re violence against women and girls

[TamzinGrey]

I was delighted to receive an email from my local council promising to create ways to reduce VAWG in the borough and asking me to complete a survey.
I clicked on the link and answered all of the questions which were mainly about my experiences of male violence and aggression. It brought back horrible memories for me but it did appear to be a helpful survey.

When I got to the end I was expecting to be asked to tick a box asking whether I was female or male (for some reason men had also been invited to complete this survey about women's experiences)
Here's what came up:

Which of the following options best describes how you think of yourself?

Woman (including trans women)
Man (including trans man)
Non-binary
In another way

Is your gender identity the same as the gender you were registered at birth?

I'm bloody fuming. In a survey about violence against women and girls I wasn't allowed to describe myself as an actual woman. They just want to know how I "think" of myself.

I did make a comment about not believing that the council are taking VAWG seriously as I wasn't even given the opportunity to describe my sex as female.

Here's a link to the survey. Anyone can complete it but they do ask for a postcode at the end.

https://online1.snapsurveys.com/Interview/942ffa79-febf-44cb-
ada2-7d1b9ef608d3

I have already posted the link to the document.

The particular survey that I posted about didn't ask about sex at all which is what infuriated me - especially as it was about VAWG. Here's what it says:

Which of the following options best describes how you think of yourself?

Woman (including trans women)
Man (including trans man)
Non-binary
In another way

Is your gender identity the same as the gender you were registered at birth?

I know and replied to that quoting the EHRC which says they shouldn't have done what they did.

Which means you can quote them when criticising what they circulated.

My response was to another poster who I thought was questioning the EHRC order of their tick boxes.

@IwantToRetire Thanks. That’s very helpful.

The first two questions are about gender:e.g. Man (includes transman). The final option asks if you see yourself 'in another way'. Then finally it asks whether your 'gender' is the same as that you were registered at birth? Where is the sex question?

The Sullivan review made recommendations about the collection of data on sex and gender.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-data-statistics-and-research-on-sex-and-gender/review-of-data-statistics-and-research-on-sex-and-gender-executive-summary

"3. The default target of any sex question should be sex (in other words, biological sex, natal sex, sex at birth)...."

1. The form of the question should follow the UK Censuses (England and Wales, Northern Ireland, Scotland) question and response categories.

What is your sex? Response categories: Female, Male"

Ask the council why they are not following these recommendations, given the harms identified by Sullivan by not doing so?

Thanks for that. I'm going to write to them.
I'm even more annoyed now because I've just looked at one of their other live surveys and that does ask whether the respondents are male or female.

So sex doesn't matter when collecting data about violence against women and girls, but apparently it does when talking about food waste collection.

I started it but it's asking about what things are like in Maidstone and I've never been there! I could just put n/a for those questions but it's still about my local area which obviously isn't in their jurisdiction. Then I'd need to make up an ME postcode at the end? Unfortunately I gave up.

Personally I would start in your complaint with the first paragraph which talks about opinions and states no matter ‘what your sex or gender’. It’s lying. They are only interested in gender (whatever they perceive that to be).

They ask if your gender identity is tbe same as at birth, though. Surely that is OK because they can easily separate out all the biological women.

And for those of us who don't have a gender identity and think it's all bollocks?

Just live and let live.

The council is using professional market research software - I can tell by the link, it’s software called Snap. They may even be working with a market research company. Market researchers set a lot of store by doing things in a scientific manner and avoiding as much bias as possible.

They’ll come out with some analysis along the lines of: 99.5% of those who identify as female were also female at birth. X% of the women who completed the survey said blah blah blah.

They won’t be able to show any separate results for the transwomen because there will not be enough of them to make the data reliable, unless they are doing an absolutely massive survey.

I honestly can’t see anyone would be upset by upset by this. It’s not designed to upset people who disagree with the idea if transwomen. It is merely facing facts that there are transwomen in existence.

This is from the survey:

Which of the following options best describes how you think of yourself?

Woman (including trans women)

Man (including trans man)

Non-binary

In another way

Is your gender identity the same as the gender you were registered at birth?

Yes

No

Like you I think that gender identity is all bollocks and it really upset me that I was forced to hold my nose and answer the second question as Yes because otherwise I wouldn't have been able to submit my completed survey, and VAWG is a real problem in the town centre and needs to be addressed.

As for the first question I ticked "In another way" because I don't think of myself as a woman inside my head, any more than DH (who I've asked) thinks of himself as a man inside his head.

They'll probably think that I identify as a cat or a unicorn or something and will disregard my response anyway.

I'll email them and let them know the survey has been brigaded

It's not a question of being upset.

"Woman (including transwoman)" makes a nonsese of VAWG.

"Is your gender identity the same as the gender you were registered at birth?" - impossible for me to answer. "When did you stop beating your wife, @dizzydizzydizzy?"

I had to google "brigaded". Second hit was reddit - "What does 'brigaded' mean on reddit?" Shouldn't surprise me, I suppose.

Woman (including trans women)
Man (including trans man)
Non-binary
In another

it's a complete nonsense question

woman (including men)
man (including women)

This is what I was thinking.

I would answer woman and yes.

ETA: yes because my gender was recorded as female at birth.

"gender recorded at birth" - seriously? And there's me with just a plain old birth certificate recording my sex.

Your gender wasn't mentioned at birth. Your sex was recorded.

I don't know that is necessarily true. I know for mt children, their discharge papers recorded their gender. Not sure what mine said. Gender and sex were used interchangeably.

Just live and let live.

"The council is using professional market research software - I can tell by the link, it’s software called Snap. They may even be working with a market research company. Market researchers set a lot of store by doing things in a scientific manner and avoiding as much bias as possible."

My whole point is that Maidstone Borough Council has numerous current and past resident surveys and they always collect personal information for market research purposes..

This particular survey, which ironically is about violence against women, is the only one that has the gender woo tick box at the end. All of the other surveys, without exception, have a male or female box to tick

Here's a link. Just click on each survey and go to the end.

Apparently it's more important to know if you're female when it comes to food refuse collection than regarding your experience of male violence.

letstalkmaidstone.uk.engagementhq.com/

Sorry. My last post was meant to be in response to this.

Do you think it would be important to identify how trans boys/men experience violence against women and girls?

Yes that would definitely be important. I haven’t heard that trans targeted violence is an issue in Maidstone, although a trans man friend of mine is just as nervous of going alone into town after dark as I am.
Maybe it would be a good subject for a separate survey.