1/ It is great news that ONS @ons appear to have moved away from a self-id approach for the Census thetimes.co.uk/article/sex-qu…
2/ Quantitative social scientists have discussed with ONS the importance of accurate sex-based data. As far as we are aware, the detail of the guidance is still under review, but I welcome this indication that ONS has moved away from framing sex in terms of gender id.
3/ As I said to the Times: “Sex is an important predictor of outcomes across all areas of life, including education, wages, crime, and physical and mental health. If we do not monitor sex differences, we cannot tackle sex discrimination."
4/ The headline is misleading and inflammatory (not the journalist's fault!). Accurate data collection benefits everyone. “Gender identity is not the same thing as sex. Understanding people’s identities is important, especially at a time when increasing numbers of girls are...
5/ ...identifying as trans or non-binary. But we cannot simply assume that the lives of these girls are not also affected by the fact that they are female.” Trans and non-binary people need accurate sex-based data too.

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More from @ProfAliceS

20 Jan
1/ People often claim that the numbers of people identifying as the opposite sex are too small to make a difference statistically. This is a clear example showing why that is false. The proportion of child sexual abusers who are women is tiny. Therefore, stats can be...
2/ ...seriously distorted by including males who 'self-id' as women in the female category. In this case, it is reported that the number of female child sex abusers has rocketed by 80% in the last few years. As a researcher, I would ask "why has that happened?"
3/ And, if there's no plausible explanation of why such a change may actually have occurred, your thoughts turn to whether there is a problem with the data. Is this artefactual? Is there a disjunction in the time series, e.g. because a key variable is being collected differently?
Read 6 tweets
14 Jan
1/ Thanks to @BBCr4today for having me on to discuss data collection on sex and why it matters. This follows the extraordinary claim by Scotland's Chief Statistician, Roger Halliday, that sex should typically not be asked unless there is a medical reason.
2/ In fact, those of us who use quantitative data overwhelmingly believe that sex is important. It matters across a wide range of domains: education, wages, crime, political attitudes, religion - you name it, sex is almost always a big predictor!
3/ Sex and gender identity are two different things, and gender identity is not a clarly defined concept. Ciaran McFadden Young (who is not a quantitative social scientist as far as I can see) claimed that sex doesn't matter, effectively it is always trumped by gender identity.
Read 11 tweets
13 Jan
1/ As the Times reports sex is wiped from official data: our submission to @Commonswomequ on the availability of accurate sex-based data is now online. With @OxSoc @AmandaGosling3 @TaraniChandola @profnallum. committees.parliament.uk/writtenevidenc…
Read 5 tweets
3 Aug 20
1/ I was pleased to see a prominent transactivist acknowledge recently that the slogan "trans women are women" leads to dogmatism rather than nuanced discussion, and interested by her claim that the slogan became "a thing" in 2016. Is that right? I ran an ngram.
2/ First use according to this dates from 2000, with an increase in usage from around 2012. The earliest book reference using the phrase that I could find is from 2006. But is this really the first key reference? Let me know in comments if you know an earlier one.
3/ Here's one from 2011, when the phrase is starting to take off.
Read 7 tweets
24 Jul 20
1/ This article replies to the responses to my article on “Sex and the Census: Why surveys should not conflate sex and gender identity“.
2/ Fugard conflates sex itself with the characteristics associated with sex, such as finger length ratios, leading to the erroneous implication that binary sex is not a useful explanatory variable.
3/ Hines fundamentally misrepresents my article, claiming that I have argued against asking respondents to the 2021 Census about their gender identity. In fact I make clear that information on gender identity is useful, but cannot replace data on sex.
Read 6 tweets
11 Jun 20
Dear @Keir_Starmer , Labour Party women have been waiting a long time to talk to you about misogynist abuse and silencing of women in the party and beyond. Perhaps now would be a good time for you to give us a hearing.
J.K. Rowling has been a major @UKLabour party donor. She's written about the abuse that women face for saying that sex is real, and that it is an important social category. Will you read what she has to say? #IStandWithJKR jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-r…
You might also be interested to see the level of abuse that J.K. Rowling has faced, just for stating her concerns as a woman. Do you think this looks like the behaviour of a progressive movement? Or does it look more like misogyny? medium.com/@rebeccarc/j-k…
Read 4 tweets

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