ESRA 2027 sessions by theme
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Capturing Gender Diversity: Challenges and Opportunities for Surveys |
| Coordinator 1 | Dr Lisa de Vries (FernUniversität in Hagen) |
| Coordinator 2 | Professor Mirjam Fischer (Humboldt University Berlin) |
| Coordinator 3 | Dr Verena Ortmanns (German Institute for Adult Education – Leibniz Centre for Lifelong Learning) |
| Coordinator 4 | Professor Stephanie Steinmetz (University of Lausanne) |
Session Details
In recent years, legal recognition and social acceptance of gender diversity have increased across many societies. As of 2025, 38 of the 46 Council of Europe member states provide legal procedures for the recognition of trans and gender-nonconforming people. Against this background, survey organizations, population registers, and censuses have shown growing interest in capturing gender diversity more accurately and inclusively. These developments have generated important methodological debates on the measurement of sex, gender identity and expression, gendered personality traits, sexual orientation, and other dimensions of gender and personal identity in population-based research. More appropriate measurement approaches can improve data quality and validity, while supporting the representation and visibility of gender-diverse populations. They can also provide respondents with opportunities to describe themselves in ways that more accurately reflect their identities.
At the same time, developing such measures raises important methodological challenges concerning conceptualization, question design, comparability, data quality, respondent acceptance, privacy. These challenges are further shaped by growing political backlash and polarization surrounding gender diversity and LGBTQI+ rights, which may affect respondents’ willingness to disclose identity-related information and the broader conditions under which such data can be collected and used. In this context, this session invites contributions from survey designers, researchers, and practitioners addressing methodological challenges and innovations in measuring gender diversity in surveys, population registers, and censuses.
Relevant topics include (but are not limited to):
• Measuring gender diversity in changing social and political contexts
• Respondent perspectives and experiences of inclusive measurement
• Ethical, confidentiality, and privacy challenges
• Cross-national approaches to measuring gender diversity
The session aims to advance methodological discussion on how survey research can become more inclusive while maintaining methodological rigor, data quality, and comparability.
