Sex
Sophie Davies
Public
Seen by 5
Sex is the distinction between males and females based on the biological differences in sexual characteristics.
Sex is a fundamental demographic characteristic used in social and population analysis. It is used to analyse most social statistics such as employment, health, and education. Collecting data on sex is a legal requirement under the Statistics Act 1975.
While the inclusion of sex in the census is not in question, there is potentially a need for changes to the categories used. Currently there are two categories: male and, female. However, some people are born biologically intersex and some people make transitions. Although this group is small, currently they cannot represent their biological sex in this question.
Concerns have been raised about how including an intersex category would affect the quality and comparability of the sex data from the census. Defining what is meant by biologically intersex may be difficult on a self-completed form with finite space. Another potential issue is that including an intersex category may elicit false responses from some respondents.
Our current recommendations relating to sex
Collecting data on sex is required by law under the Statistics Act 1975, and will be collected in the 2018 Census.
We will do more testing and research to explore the possibility of collecting information on those who are biologically intersex.
See our preliminary view of 2018 Census content (pages 14-15) for a more detailed discussion on sex information.
See 2013 Census information by variable for information on the sex variable.
Lisa (Facilitator) Thu 21 May 2015 4:08AM
Hi @rogenasterling : a generic answer to your questions, as Statistics New Zealand follows a process, and this is not really the forum to go into detail. But briefly, when proposing to change responses we research what those categories could be, test to ensure aspects like understandability, and that the concept of the question has not changed, and examine the implications of changing how the data is collected (as mentioned by @debpotter). It's often iterative as this process often brings up issues that need to be addressed.
Issues raised here in Loomio and in the (more formal) submissions process will also be addressed within the process. At the moment this includes issues such as: do we want to collect sex or sexual identity and in what ways do the differences matter? is the definition appropriate?
What other aspects do people want considered?
Poll Created Fri 29 May 2015 4:48AM
The Sex question needs to be clearer. Closed Mon 1 Jun 2015 4:08AM
There was agreement it is not clear what the census Sex question is currently asking (i.e. sex or something else like gender identity). Many people also mentioned the need to clarify what is being used to define Sex.
It needs to be clearer that the question is collecting sex (and not, for example, gender identity).
Results
| Results | Option | % of points | Voters | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
|
Agree | 100.0% | 7 |
|
| Abstain | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Disagree | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Block | 0.0% | 0 | ||
| Undecided | 0% | 3 |
|
7 of 10 people have participated (70%)
Duncan Matthews
Fri 29 May 2015 4:53AM
We need to have clearer data on the sex of New Zealanders, and the diversity of sex within NZ, to know where our gaps in service are.
Jennifer Katherine Shields
Fri 29 May 2015 5:28AM
Conditional agreement: if you're going to collect it (which I dont necessarily agree with) it needs to be clear that you're collecting sex /and/ what you mean by sex. There also needs to be options for intersex ppl.
Rogena Sterling
Fri 29 May 2015 6:15AM
the proposal is not clear. Who determines one's sex? What is the definition of sex without medicalisation?
Kay
Fri 29 May 2015 9:54AM
Either ask what a person's current legal documents of identity state (M or F or X), as 1 Q AND ask about how people identify. OR ask for Sex meaning gender identity. Many people wd give same A to both Qs. Info about size of discrepancy is essential
Colin England
Sun 31 May 2015 12:47AM
Seems to me that this question needs to be in two parts. One question asking for the persons biological sex (M, F, Other) and the other asking for their gender (M, F, Other).
Megan Bowra-Dean
Sun 31 May 2015 6:49AM
Agreement conditional on any clarification on the definition of sex actually being grounded in logical health reasons. i.e. Sex hormones not genitals/birth assignment.
Rogena Sterling
Sun 31 May 2015 7:38AM
This must not be based on medicalisation.
Conditional agreement on there being a category that encompasses non-bnary pepole including intersex people, eg from passport/driver's licence which legally recognises non-binary
Rogena Sterling · Tue 19 May 2015 9:46PM
If you are focusing the question on identity, rather than biology, the situation becomes clearer and simpler. Having discussions previously, this is never really made clear and the explanations traverse biology and identity and do not demarcate between the two.