Gender is gender: male or female!
Details #
Of course it’s not! First of all that be clear that we do think the old distinction between gender as psychosocial identity and sex as the physiological/genetic substrate is moderately important though again, things aren’t that quite as simple as that sounds because genetic sex though it’s most XX or XY isn’t quite that simple with XO, XXY and other even rare genotypes. Gender now is of course highly contentious with a powerful and important reaction against “binary” and so often misogynist and heterosexist and the increasing respect for transgendered individuals in many countries (but not all of course). The UK has lagged behind many countries in officially moving from a binary categorisation of gender but different countries that have created non-binary categories have different systems. This situation means that gender remains an absolutely crucial variable in therapy research and routine data collection but is now vexed.
Even when a some non-binary category system is offered the vast majority of clients outside specialist gender identity clinics still own, with or without some reservations, one of the old M/F binary. This means that “internal” analyses of data for any other category is limited by a very small cell size”others” for data from individual therapists and even from small services. At the same time, the lack of a non-binary category system (in the UK at least) means that there is little or no referential data in aggregate datasets to support “external” analyses for those choosing a non-binary gender identity.
Try also #
Cell size
Referential data
Statistical power
Precision
Estimation
Internal vs. external analyses
Validity
Chapters #
We assume that gender is important throughout the book!
Dates #
Created 14/11/21.
