The Gender/Sex 3×3: Measuring and Categorizing Gender/Sex Beyond Binaries

Abstract

Critiques of gender/sex measurement tend to focus on the questions researchers ask, including their binaristic, static nature, or overfocus on/erasure of transgender/cisgender status. The questions matter, as does the way gender/sex responses may be categorized, which has received less focus. In this article, we report on the “Gender/Sex 3x3”, which we developed via two studies to produce a novel framework for conceptualizing, measuring, and categorizing gender/sex. It represents two intersecting dimensions: “gender trajectory” (cisgender/transgender/allogender [i.e., neither cisgender nor transgender]) and “binary relation” (binary/nonbinary/allobinary [i.e., neither binary nor nonbinary]). In Study 1, we created gender/sex questions structured by the Gender/Sex 3x3 and asked 737 gender/sex-diverse participants to directly evaluate them. Descriptive quantitative feedback indicated the comprehensibility and inclusivity of the questions; qualitative feedback suggested wording changes. In Study 2, we tested these revised questions with 317 gender/sex-diverse participants and again found high levels of comprehensibility and inclusivity. We conclude by providing recommendations for questions about gender/sex that are inclusive of all nine locations in the Gender/Sex 3x3 and useful for flexible categorizations of gender/sexes.