False Assumptions Developers Make About Gender (and their sometimes hilarious results)

From signup forms to social media profiles to targeted advertising: gender is everywhere.

But too often software developers make assumptions about gender that just don't work in the real world, and when those assertions fail, the results can be anywhere from amusing to seriously harmful.

Watch and learn as a nonbinary person breaks the gender binary, challenges your assumptions, and demonstrates the hilarious consequences of being an X in an M/F world.

Transcript

1. False assumptions
 developers make about gender (and their sometimes hilarious results) Effy Elden @ineffyble
2. There are only two genders.
6. Female Male
7. False assumption: There are only two genders.
8. There are only three genders.
11. False assumption: There are only three genders.
14. False assumption: There are a finite number of genders,
 which are enumerable.
15. False assumption: You need to collect data on your users’ gender.
16. Effy’s Story
18. False assumption: Someone’s gender will
 never change.
20. False assumption: A person’s gender tells you if they can get pregnant.
22. False assumption: You can tell someone’s gender from what they tweet.
23. False assumptions developers make about gender (and their often harmful results) Effy Elden
24. Effy’s Story
25. Effy’s Story
26. False assumption: “title” === “gender”
27. False assumption: You must have a certain gender to use certain titles.
32. Mx.
33. False assumption: Systems you integrate with will have the same understanding of gender.
37. False assumption: Someone’s gender will never change multiple times.
39. False assumption: “transgender” is a gender.
40. False assumption: “transgender” === “nonbinary”
41. “The relative number of people who are trans is about 1200 people in Australia.” - Bill Shorten
42. Standard for Sex and Gender Variables, 2016 Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)
43. False assumption: Gender and sex are the same thing.
46. False assumption: You can tell someone’s gender from their title.
50. False assumption: A gender field can just
 collect any random info
 you care about.
51. False assumption: Someone has the same gender in every system
 (and if it doesn’t match then that’s clearly fraud)
56. False assumption: Colloquialisms are a great way to collect gender.
61. False assumption: You can tell someone’s gender from their name.
68. False assumption: Email addresses have gender.
72. Thank you. @ineffyble
73. Questions? @ineffyble
74. COFFEE BY WIFI BY CHILDCARE BY