Gender Identity and Expression
↑ Table of Contents
Terminology
Sex refers to a set of biological attributes. The term is associated with physical and physiological features including chromosomes, gene expression, hormone levels and function, and reproductive/sexual anatomy.
Gender refers to socially constructed roles, behaviours, expressions, and identities of girls, women, boys, men, and gender-diverse people. It impacts how people perceive themselves and each other, how they act and interact, and the distribution of power and resources.
Gender identity is a component of gender that describes a person’s psychological sense of their gender and applies to all individuals. It is not confined to a binary (girl/woman, boy/man), nor is it static. It is not limited to transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals. A person’s gender identity may be the same as or different from their birth-assigned sex.
Gender expression is how a person expresses or presents their gender, which can include behaviour and outward appearance such as dress, hair, makeup, body language, and voice. Common ways of expressing gender are a person’s selected name and pronoun.
Transgender people’s gender and/or gender expression differs from their assigned sex and/or the societal and cultural expectation of their assigned sex at birth: male, female, or intersex. Transgender is sometimes shortened to “trans” (e.g., “trans man,” “trans woman”).
Gender nonconforming refers to an individual’s behaviour and/or appearance not conforming to prevailing gender social and cultural behaviours.
Cisgender refers to a person whose gender identity matches the sex they were assigned at birth.
Recommendations
Use an individual’s chosen name and pronouns when referring to them. For example, she/her/hers, he/him/his, and/or they/them/their.
Use inclusive, gender-neutral terms wherever possible. When communicating with larger audiences, use “people” or “students,” instead of “men and women” or “ladies and gentlemen.”
Most occupations/roles need not be gender-defined. Use:
- Chair, not chairman/chairwoman
- Police officer, not policeman/policewoman
- Spokesperson, not spokesman/spokeswoman
Rephrase sentences that use the masculine pronoun as a generic pronoun.
- Use: Instructors who want a back issue of the Queen’s Alumni Review should come to the communications office in Richardson Hall.
- Not: If an instructor wants a back issue of the Queen’s Alumni Review, he should come to the communications office in Richardson Hall.
Titles/honorifics (Mr., Ms., Dr.) should be used consistently for all people mentioned in stories or articles. However, if there is objection to honorifics, respect the individual’s wishes and remove the title. Mx can be used as a gender-neutral title.
To avoid gender bias against women in science in any written or oral communication, use the Finkbeiner test (unless the woman explicitly requests to be identified as a woman in science). To pass the Finkbeiner test, a story/article/presentation cannot mention:
- The fact that she’s a woman
- Her husband’s job
- Her child-care arrangements
- How she nurtures her underlings
- How she was taken aback by the competitiveness in her field
- How she’s such a role model for other women
- How she’s the “first woman to …”
Avoid
- Language that assumes a person’s gender. Instead, use “they/their/them” as gender-neutral singular pronouns.
- Assumptions about gender within relationship roles (e.g., husband/wife or mother/father). Instead, use more inclusive terms such as “partner,” “spouse,” and “parents.”
- “Guys” to refer to a mixed-gender group of people
- Limiting gender to a male-female binary such as in the concept of “opposite sex” or “opposite gender.” Instead, use “a different gender.”
Citations
Airton, L. (2018). Gender: Your Guide — A Gender-Friendly Primer on What to Know, What to Say, and What to Do in the New Gender Culture. Toronto: Adams Media
Brainard, C. (2013). ‘The Finkbeiner Test:’ Seven rules to avoid gratuitous gender profiles of female scientists. Columbia Journalism Review
Center for Integration and Improvement of Journalism at San Francisco State University. (2021). The Diversity Style Guide
GLAAD. (2021). GLAAD Media Reference Guide
Ontario Human Rights Commission. (2021). Gender identity and gender expression (brochure)
Queen’s University. (2021). Inclusive Language Guidelines
Purdue University. (2021). Gendered Pronouns & Singular “They”