I seem to be sending a similar email quite often lately, so I thought it might be worth sending out a version to the list more generally. Many of the surveys I see sent out over this list still include a 'gender' option that offers users the choice of only 'male' or 'female'. If you're developing a survey to send out, it might be worth considering: * Whether gender is relevant to your research question/topic? (If not, you may consider leaving out a question about gender) * Offering more options for gender. Gender is complex, and many people don't identify as either male or female. Offering an option for a text field is a useful way to allow people to answer the question honestly: http://www.sarahmei.com/blog/2010/11/26/disalienation/ I'm also curious how people who are already addressing the gender spectrum in research surveys are approaching this: do you use a text field, 'male'/'female'/'other', or something else? Thanks, sky.