Gender/Sex Diversity Beliefs: Heterogeneity, Links to Prejudice, and Diversity-Affirming Interventions

Abstract

This dissertation explores the structure and significance of beliefs about the nature of gender/sex categories, or gender/sex diversity beliefs, across a series of empirical studies. In Chapter 1, I describe the recent history of the study of gender/sex categories and gender/sex diversity beliefs, and implications for the current sociopolitical situation of gender/sex minorities. Claims about the nature of gender/sex and the meaning of gender/sex categories are contentious both within and beyond feminist discourses, including in public policy and academic research, and this dissertation clarifies their implications for understanding gender/sex majorities’ attitudes about minorities.

Next, in Chapter 2, I take a bottom-up approach to understanding heterogeneity in gender/sex diversity beliefs by examining variation in individuals’ definitions of gender/sex categories. I analyze the presence of sociocultural and/or biological content in participants’ definitions of the words woman, man, feminine, masculine, female, and male. Further, I examine the complexity of participants’ definitions and the role of social location factors, particularly gender/sex and sexual minority/majority status. In Chapter 3, I explore in-depth a sub-sample of transgender-exclusionary radical feminists who participated in the research described in Chapter 2 to disrupt and control it. I contextualize why my research was targeted in particular and I describe implications for online diversity-related research more generally.

In Chapter 4, I develop the Gender/Sex Diversity Beliefs Scale (GSDB), a survey measure of beliefs about the nature of gender/sex that are especially relevant to gender/sex minority identities. I create an item list with feedback from community experts (i.e., gender/sex minority individuals) and academic experts on gender/sex diversity and/or beliefs about the nature of social categories. Across multiple studies, I test the factor structure and test-retest reliability of the GSDB. Further, I examine the relationship of the GSDB to sociopolitical ideologies and attitudes about gender/sex minorities.

Finally, in Chapter 5, I develop an intervention to improve gender/sex majorities’ attitudes about gender/sex minorities and gender/sex diversity beliefs. The intervention compels gender/sex majority participants to visually map their own gender/sex identities on diagrams with sexual configurations theory (van Anders, 2015). I analyze the intervention’s immediate efficacy and whether effects endured at a follow-up four weeks later.

Together, these studies clarify how varied people’s perspectives on gender/sex diversity currently are, patterns in gender/sex diversity beliefs that people hold, and the implications of gender/sex diversity beliefs for studying prejudice against gender/sex minorities. Ultimately, this dissertation provides a new conceptual framework and related survey measure for studying beliefs and attitudes about gender/sex categories. And, I identify promising new directions for interventions to challenge gender/sex majorities’ prejudice against minorities.