A Question of Gender and Safety

By Annie Elliott

I recently attended the Association of Public Data Users (APDU) conference in Washington DC, where I had the privilege of sitting in a conference room and discussing data for two days. What a joy. Now read that again without a hint of sarcasm: What a joy.

I left APDU with a healthy list of public data sets to investigate and confirmation that some of the data I’d like to see is not publicly available at a sub-state level for the entire country. Conference-goers discussed big items like aggregating and disaggregating data and the implications of anticipated changes in public data. They also discussed more nuanced topics such as the negative impact of children moving schools and some of the forces, like lead in homes, that drove families with small children to move.

A common theme in many conversations was how to best represent different groups of people in questionnaires. Both race/ethnicity questions and sexual orientation and gender identities/expression (SOGI or SOGIE) questions are areas in which poorly worded questions can lead to misunderstanding. If questions are inherently flawed, then any insights about specific groups generated from these surveys are subject to severe limitations. As they say in computer science and data analysis: garbage in, garbage out.

A common SOGI question reads something like this: “What is your current gender?” with options of “Male”, “Female”, “Transgender”, or “None of these.”

When this example was flashed to public data users, a wave of disgruntled murmurs spread through the room. The problem with phrasing like this is that ‘transgender’ is not a gender. A conference attendee compared it to asking someone if they’re a STEM major, a humanities major, a freshman, or none of these. ‘Freshman’ is categorically different. You could be both a freshman and a STEM major, just as you could be a transgender female.

Questions with this phrasing can lead to a larger than expected pool of people who responded, “None of these,” leaving the interpretation up for debate. Are people checking this box because they are nonbinary? Are people treating “None of these” as “More than one of the above” or are people just annoyed because the question doesn’t reflect their identity and they refuse to reply? The only way to know is to reframe the question.

In the 2024 American Community Survey (ACS) will include a SOGI test question that reads as follows: “What is [NAME’s] current gender?” with options of “Male”, “Female”, “Transgender”, “Nonbinary”, or “Uses a different term,” with a fill in option. The SOGI test question will be rolled out as two treatment groups: one in which people are allowed to select only one response, and one in which people can select more than one response.

Oftentimes, the purpose of framing more detailed gender or race questions is to better understand smaller and potentially marginalized populations. Conference discussions on this topic followed the important theme that data collection should never come at the risk of harm to participants. This paradox—where the need for visibility and representation clashes with the potential for exposure and stigmatization—requires careful and ethical policy decisions and handling of data.

As a Senior Data Analyst, I’ve seen firsthand how the way we frame questions can shape the narratives we tell about our communities. The discussions at the APDU conference highlighted the delicate balance we must maintain between gathering meaningful data and protecting the people behind the numbers. These conversations are not just academic—they are vital to ensuring that public data serves everyone equitably and ethically.

Continued Advocacy

At Metopio, we work with public health and healthcare leaders every day who are looking for ways to understand how disparities show up in different subpopulations and what social determinants of health may contribute to those disparities.  Continued advocacy to reflect changes in population in the federal statistical agencies is important as is our willingness to listen and understand how best to reflect and protect these populations.

I am excited to continue the conversation with my peers and work with our clients to provide the best possible data to spur meaningful action in communities that helps everyone live their best life.

Dive Deeper with Metopio

If you’re passionate about the power of data to drive social change, I encourage you to explore Metopio’s blog that can help you better understand and utilize public data. Whether you’re looking to dive deeper into demographic insights or want to see how these data practices impact your community, Metopio offers a wealth of information and analytics capabilities.