Sex and gender: More than just demographic variables

CallaghanWalter,

doi:10.3138/jmvfh-2021-0027

Cited by 11 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 37 publications

(48 reference statements)

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“…Introductions and backgrounds pertinent to pregnant people should use gender-inclusive language. Even though the majority of previous articles refer to their sample as (assumed cisgender) ‘women,’ the vast majority do not measure or report gender that is otherwise often conflated with ‘sex.’31–33 Using gender-inclusive language not only contributes to reducing erasure, but also to more accurate descriptions. Furthermore, because of the current (cis) woman-centric language in pregnancy-related research, simply using (cis) woman-related terminology when referring to an article that reported having only cisgender women participants would be unclear to readers.…”

Section: Recommendations For Future Epidemiological Research On Pregn...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender-inclusive writing for epidemiological research on pregnancy

Rioux

Weedon

London-Nadeau

et al. 2022

J Epidemiol Community Health

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People who have a uterus but are not cisgender women may carry pregnancies. Unfortunately, to date, academic language surrounding pregnancy remains largely (cis) woman-centric. The exclusion of gender-diverse people in the language of pregnancy research in English is pervasive. In reviewing a random sample of 500 recent articles on pregnancy or pregnant populations across health research fields, we found that only 1.2% of articles used gender-inclusive language (none of them in epidemiology), while the remaining 98.8% used (cis) woman-centric language. First and foremost, recent recommendations highlight the need to include trans, non-binary and gender-diverse people in study design. Meanwhile, there remains a lack of awareness that all research on pregnancy can contribute to inclusiveness, including in dissemination and retroactive description. We explain how the ubiquitous use of (cis) woman-centric language in pregnancy-related research contributes to (1) the erasure of gender diversity; (2) inaccurate scientific communication and (3) negative societal impacts, such as perpetuating the use of exclusionary language by students, practitioners, clinicians, policy-makers and the media. We follow with recommendations for gender-inclusive language in every section (ie, introductions, methods, results, discussions) of epidemiological articles on pregnant populations. The erasure of gender-diverse people in the rhetoric of research about pregnant people can be addressed immediately, including in the dissemination of results from ongoing studies that did not take gender diversity into consideration. This makes gender-inclusive language a crucial first step towards the inclusion of gender-diverse people in epidemiological research on pregnant people and other health research more globally.

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Section: Recommendations For Future Epidemiological Research On Pregn...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender-inclusive writing for epidemiological research on pregnancy

Rioux

Weedon

London-Nadeau

et al. 2022

J Epidemiol Community Health

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“…While sex and gender may represent different constructs, they remain frequently conflated in epidemiological research and the terms are often used interchangeably. [10,[16][17][18] Their respective usages have a long history that is shaped by cultural and political forces as much as scientific research. [19,20] Many researchers use "sex" to refer to the systematic classification as male, female, or intersex assigned at birth based on visual anatomy assessment.…”

Section: Sex and Gendermentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The tendency for epidemiological research to only refer to men and women when mentioning gender [10,[16][17][18] and to exclusively use external genitalia assessed at birth to measure sex reflects how this research remains rooted in the gender/sex binary. The gender/sex binary refers to a belief system where sex and gender are considered binary, with two mutually exclusive categories representing men and women.…”

Section: The Gender/sex Binarymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sex and gender terminology: a glossary for gender-inclusive epidemiology

Rioux

Paré

London-Nadeau

et al. 2022

J Epidemiol Community Health

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There is increased interest in inclusion, diversity and representativeness in epidemiological and community health research. Despite this progress, misunderstanding and conflation of sex and gender have precluded both the accurate description of sex and gender as sample demographics and their inclusion in scientific enquiry aiming to distinguish health disparities due to biological systems, gendered experiences or their social and environmental interactions. The present glossary aims to define and improve understanding of current sex-related and gender-related terminology as an important step to gender-inclusive epidemiological research. Effectively, a proper understanding of sex, gender and their subtleties as well as acknowledgement and inclusion of diverse gender identities and modalities can make epidemiology not only more equitable, but also more scientifically accurate and representative. In turn, this can improve public health efforts aimed at promoting the well-being of all communities and reducing health inequities.

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“…The study of gender, on the other hand, entails the study of the role of gender identity, norms, relations and institutional aspects as possible sources of health inequities [ 8 ]. Historically, sex and gender have been frequently conflated in medicine [ 9 , 10 ]. In most of these instances, gender is being used in place of sex , although solely biological phenomena are being studied.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Operationalization and Reporting Practices in Manuscripts Addressing Gender Differences in Biomedical Research: A Cross-Sectional Bibliographical Study

Hurk

Hiltner

Oertelt‐Prigione

2022

IJERPH

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Historically, authors in the biomedical field have often conflated the terms sex and gender in their research significantly limiting the reproducibility of the reported results. In the present study, we investigated current reporting practices around gender in biomedical publications that claim the identification of “gender differences”. Our systematic research identified 1117 articles for the year 2019. After random selection of 400 publications and application of inclusion criteria, 302 articles were included for analysis. Using a systematic evaluation grid, we assessed the provided methodological detail in the operationalization of gender and the provision of gender-related information throughout the manuscript. Of the 302 articles, 69 (23%) solely addressed biological sex. The remaining articles investigated gender, yet only 15 (6.5%) offered reproducible information about the operationalization of the gender dimension studied. Followingly, these manuscripts also provided more detailed gender-specific background, analyses and discussions compared to the ones not detailing the operationalization of gender. Overall, our study demonstrated persistent inadequacies in the conceptual understanding and methodological operationalization of gender in the biomedical field. Methodological rigor correlated with more nuanced and informative reporting, highlighting the need for appropriate training to increase output quality and reproducibility in the field.

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Sex and gender: More than just demographic variables

Cited by 11 publications

References 37 publications

Gender-inclusive writing for epidemiological research on pregnancy

Gender-inclusive writing for epidemiological research on pregnancy

Sex and gender terminology: a glossary for gender-inclusive epidemiology

Operationalization and Reporting Practices in Manuscripts Addressing Gender Differences in Biomedical Research: A Cross-Sectional Bibliographical Study

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