Data Matters
Record Of Our Dissent: Testimony on the Importance of Sex Data in Law & Policy
Below is a transcript of testimony given at a public hearing on March 28, 2024, held by the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women.
On International Women’s Day 2022, Joanna Cherry, a Scottish politician and women’s rights advocate, said the following in a brilliant speech before the House of Commons in regard to the meaning of the word “woman”:
What you cannot define you cannot protect, and what you cannot name cannot be properly discussed and debated. That is why the erasure of sex-based language from our statute book and public and private policy making should be resisted.
Implicit in her statement is the fact that what you cannot name you cannot count and what you cannot count cannot be accounted for and protected.
I am testifying here today because I would like MCSW to advocate for the inclusion of sex as a data variable in all legislation which aims to identify and remedy inequities faced by women and girls.
There are currently at least nine such bills pending in the legislature. These bills concern, among other matters: salary range transparency, the promotion of diversity on public boards and commissions, eliminating disparities in mental health treatment, enhancing outreach to women veterans and assessing the impact of covid-19 on women and girls.
None of these bills name sex as a data variable. Some mention gender identity and others mention gender (which might be just a polite term for sex, or it might mean gender identity). Two bills use the word female but one of these bills defines female as as “anyone who identifies as female,” and the other offers no clarification . Lastly, the word woman is used in two bills, but no definition is provided. However, it’s reasonable to assume that it is being used in the same way that female is used - as an indicator of gender identity and not sex.
And while it is true that the collection and analysis of data on gender identity is important, it is also true that collecting data on sex is equally, if not more, important and that data on gender identity should never be substituted for or conflated with data on sex. For example, without data on sex, women and girls who identify as non-binary, agender, genderfluid or genderqueer would be excluded from data used to assess mental health treatment disparities between females and males.
Without clarity and accuracy in naming sex as a data variable, and without disaggregating sex data from gender identity data, these bills will fail to identify inequities and promote the interests of all women and girls, as a sex class.
I respectfully ask that the Massachusetts Commission on the Status of Women be accountable to the women and girls of the Commonwealth by advocating for sex-based data collection in law and policy.
Record of Our Dissent is a reoccurring portion of our newsletter dedicated to publishing previously submitted letters, public testimony and comment written to oppose Massachusetts and federal laws and policies which erode the sex-based rights of women and girls as well as child safeguarding. In addition to documenting our our dissent, we hope these writings will inspire others to speak out and take action. If you have something to share with our readers please contact us at ma4women@proton.me.
It's all about the language. That's why they fight so hard for it.
Take that away, and they have nothing. There's no such thing as "gender" or "gender identity." There is only sex.
Good job testifying. But the truth is not too respected these days. 1984 40 years on. That's where we are right now, that the Ma. Commission on the Status of Women does not know what a Woman is, or is afraid to say. Brainwashed? Gaslit? Stockholm syndrome? Indoctrinated? Want the job? Will lie to maintain their social status? Scared shitless of the patriarchal state?????