Assessment and operationalization of the characteristic “gender” in representative population-based surveys: challenges and implications with the example of the GeSiD study

Abstract

Representative quantitative surveys assess the participants’ gender in order to allow for gender specific analyses of the research questions and to draw conclusions about the populations. This is important in order to develop information and interventions tailored to the target groups. However, although gender is no longer considered exclusively as a binary construct, it is still often surveyed through a binary variable with the response options woman/man or female/male. In this article, we discuss why this approach is outdated or incomplete and why a move away from this approach is important and necessary. Using the GeSiD study on “Health and Sexuality in Germany” as an example, in this discussion post we demonstrate how gender can be assessed by means of a two-step model in which the first step assesses gender assigned at birth and the second step the subjective gender affiliation. At the same time, we discuss the challenges that this approach brings along. We place the results of the GeSiD study into a larger context and discuss the implications and possibilities for operationalizing gender in representative surveys.