Thread by @dr_eprice

Researchers: This is your regularly-scheduled reminder that if you are measuring gender in a survey, your options should not be "Male" "Female" and "Transgender". That makes no sense. Here's why:

First, ask yourself what you are really trying to measure with a gender item. Are you looking at how gender identity is related to the subject of your study? Are you interested in a person's biology? Are you not sure? Make sure you have a precise idea of what your variables are.

For example, are you doing a study where a participant's gender identity matters, ask about their identity, not their sex. If you are interested in something biological, ask whether participants have the anatomy/hormones/etc you are actually interested in. Be direct and clear.

You should also ask yourself why you're measuring gender at all, by the way. We survey-researchers tend to throw in demographics thoughtlessly, and analyze them in a pretty sloppy way too. If gender is not related to any hypotheses or needed as a control, maybe you don't need it.

Now, let's say you've confirmed that a) you have a good reason to measure gender, and b) you are interested in gender identity, not what a person was assigned at birth/sex. And let's further say c) you want to be inclusive of trans people. I hope c is a given.

(Unfortunately, it's often *not* a given that researchers want to include trans people...but, awareness and interest has increased over time, so let's assume you're a good researcher who wants to get representative data and measure gender well.)

Now, you can choose to label your binary options a couple of different ways: Male and Female, Woman and Man...I think woman and man is the better set of options because it's less connected to sex assignment at birth/biology.

But either way, make sure the survey question asks about gender identity -- "What is your gender?" or "What is your gender identity?" are both simple and comprehensible to most people. Don't ask about sex/biology unless you care about it.

Now let's talk about the nonbinary options and trans-inclusive options. A lot of researchers list "Transgender" as the third option. This makes no sense. "Transgender" is not a gender. It just tells you a person's assignment at birth does not match their identity.

And if you care about a person's gender identity...you should just ask about that identity. Not how they got there.

A trans man is a man. His gender is male/ a man. A trans woman is a woman. Her gender is female/ a woman. Neither would pick "transgender" as their gender.

This is a flawed analogy, but suppose you asked "What is your religious affiliation?" and your options were:

A. Protestant
B. Catholic
C. Muslim
D. Jewish
E. I converted to my religion

"E" is like listing "Transgender" as a gender option.

"Transgender" is an answer to a question that hasn't been asked. It's bad survey design. It makes no sense to respondents or for analysis purposes.

So what do you do instead of listing "transgender" as a gender option?

Well. Let's ask again: What are you trying to accomplish?

Are you trying to include nonbinary people?

Then add nonbinary options to the measure. Things like:
Nonbinary
Genderqueer
Genderfluid
Other: ______

Consider making your gender options a checklist, rather than a single-choice! Then we can pick multiple labels that apply to us.

Are you trying to compare cis gender people and transgender people? Then you need to make their trans/cis status a SEPARATE QUESTION. Like so:

1. What is your gender identity?
[List of sensible options]
2. Are you transgender or nonbinary?
[yes or no]

Or something like that.

Being trans is not a gender. It's a descriptor of your relationship to your gender, versus the gender that society put on you. And if you're doing research that requires measuring gender, or looking into trans topics, you NEED TO KNOW THAT.

Researchers, please share your #badgendermeasures with me whenever you encounter them. It's a widespread problem and it has a lot of ripple effects. If we (trans people) are not studied in a valid way, we can't be helped, understood, or seen.

@threadreaderapp unroll plz thnks bby