Intersectional gender measurement: proposing a new metric for gender identity and gender experience

Abstract

ABSTRACT Traditional conceptions of gender as a binary, man-or-woman categorization are being challenged in scholarship and in U.S. popular culture. Researchers across disciplines have rejected gender binarism; English dictionaries and style manuals have embraced the singular “they”; and social networking sites offer multiple gender options. These changes signal increased awareness that binary gender categorizations perpetuate structures of oppression that act on all people, but especially disadvantage transgender, non-binary, and intersex individuals. Mindful of this cultural shift, this paper explores how gender measurement is handled in recent scholarly publications in communication. Based on a qualitative content analysis of articles published in 2018–2019, it demonstrates that six leading U.S.-based communication journals published research that marginalizes non-cisnormative people through binary gender measurement. Arguing that it is the ethical responsibility of researchers to recognize the multiplicity of identities that are authentic to our informants, it concludes with recommendations for conceptualizing, measuring, and reporting gender beyond the binary, including a metric for gender that incorporates dual axes of gender identity and gender experience.