Gender survey question

{{Short description|Method for asking a user's gender}}

File:Wikimedia Foundation code of conduct survey gender question.png

A gender survey question is the question in a survey asking for the respondent to report their gender. In questionnaire construction the survey designer may make this an open-ended question or multiple choice.

In 2018 the General Social Survey began releasing data on respondents' self-identified gender.{{cite web |last1=Carian |first1=Emily K. |title=More Inclusive Gender Questions Added to the General Social Survey |url=https://gender.stanford.edu/news-publications/gender-news/more-inclusive-gender-questions-added-general-social-survey |website=The Clayman Institute for Gender Research |publisher=Stanford University |language=en |date=15 May 2019}}

Historically surveys have only offered options for respondents to indicate being either male or female.{{cite journal |last1=Harrison |first1=Jack |last2=Grant |first2=Jaime |last3=Herman |first3=Jody L. |title=A Gender Not Listed Here: Genderqueers, Gender Rebels, and OtherWise in the National Transgender Discrimination Survey |journal=LGBTQ Public Policy Journal at the Harvard Kennedy School |date=1 April 2012 |volume=2 |issue=1 |pages=13 |url=https://escholarship.org/uc/item/2zj46213 |language=en}} More inclusive surveys may offer more options.

Some respondents will not want to indicate being either male or female and will wish for additional options.{{cite journal |last1=Spiel |first1=Katta |last2=Haimson |first2=Oliver |last3=Lottridge |first3=Danielle |title=How to do better with gender on surveys: A guide for HCI researchers {{!}} ACM Interactions |journal=ACM Interactions |date=August 2019 |volume=XXVI |issue=4 |page=62 |url=https://interactions.acm.org/archive/view/july-august-2019/how-to-do-better-with-gender-on-surveys |publisher=Association for Computing Machinery |doi=10.1145/3338283 |hdl=2027.42/154050 |s2cid=195776950 |language=en|hdl-access=free }}

Sex and gender are important demographic characteristics to understand in social research, but for information on these things to be meaningful, researchers must be thoughtful in collecting the data.{{cite journal |last1=Westbrook |first1=Laurel |last2=Saperstein |first2=Aliya |title=New Categories Are Not Enough |journal=Gender & Society |date=10 July 2015 |volume=29 |issue=4 |pages=534–560 |doi=10.1177/0891243215584758|s2cid=85520200 }}

File:Gender survey question in 2021 research application.png|2021 research application

University of Virginia Health System gender survey question.png|2021 hospital registration form