The gender/sex 3×3: Measuring and categorizing gender/sex beyond binaries.

Abstract

Critiques of gender/sex measurement tend to focus on the questions researchers ask, including their binaristic, static nature, or overfocus on/erasure of transgender/cisgender status. The questions matter, as does the way gender/sex responses may be categorized, which has received less focus. In this article, we report on the "Gender/Sex 333," which we developed via two studies to produce a novel framework for conceptualizing, measuring, and categorizing gender/sex. It represents two intersecting dimensions: "gender trajectory" (cisgender/transgender/allogender [i.e., neither cisgender nor transgender]) and "binary relation" (binary/nonbinary/allobinary [i.e., neither binary nor nonbinary]). In Study 1, we created gender/sex questions structured by the Gender/Sex 333 and asked 737 gender/sex-diverse participants to directly evaluate them. Descriptive quantitative feedback indicated the comprehensibility and inclusivity of the questions; qualitative feedback suggested wording changes. In Study 2, we tested these revised questions with 317 gender/sex-diverse participants and again found high levels of comprehensibility and inclusivity. We conclude by providing recommendations for questions about gender/sex that are inclusive of all nine locations in the Gender/Sex 333 and useful for flexible categorizations of gender/sexes. Public Significance StatementWe present the Gender/Sex 333, a new framework for measuring and categorizing diverse gender/ sexes. This framework and the gender/sex questions we recommend can potentially be used in any survey that seeks to inclusively assess people's gender/sexes.

LGBTQ+-Affirming Campus Sexual and Relationship Violence Prevention: A Qualitative Study

“…In future studies, we would add a second question (i.e., are you transgender?) (Lombardi & Banik, 2016) or a Gender/Sex 3x3 Model (Beischel et al, 2022) to better describe our sample.…”

Hormone therapy and trans sexuality: A review.

“…This includes trans men, transmasculine people, trans women, transfeminine people, and some nonbinary people. Some trans people are nonbinary and not all nonbinary people are trans (Beischel et al., 2022). We use transmasculine/trans man and transfeminine/trans woman to describe participants unless the research explicitly includes nonbinary identities.…”

Feminist and queer science: Principles for research with gender, sex, and sexuality in psychology and beyond.

“…For example, research that includes transgender and cisgender categories is an improvement over cisnormative research that presumes participants are cisgender. However, transgender and cisgender are often positioned as the only two options for gender trajectory (i.e., a person's relationship to their sex assigned at birth; Beischel, Schudson, et al, 2022). In contrast, research has demonstrated that not everyone falls into one of these two categories, and that an "allogender" category is a useful addition (Beischel, Schudson, et al, 2022), echoing narratives and lived experiences (Bornstein, 1994;Darwin, 2020;Diamond & Butterworth, 2008).…”