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European Working Conditions Survey 2024

General Information:

*Note: The item was tested in English, German and Polish.*

Question Text:

English version 1, 2 and 3:

Would you decribe yourself as...?

German version 1, 2 and 3:

Wie würden Sie sich selbst hinsichtlich Ihrer Geschlechtsidentität beschreiben?

Answer Categories:

English version 1:
a man
a woman
other

English version 2:
a man
a woman
other, namely:

English version 3:
a man
a woman


German version 1:
Männlich
Weiblich
Andere Geschlechtsidentität

German version 2:
Männlich
Weiblich
Andere Geschlechtsidentität, und zwar:

German version 3:
Männlich
Weiblich

Recommendations:

Based on cognitive pretesting, no changes to the question are recommended.

However, the question should be revisited from the perspective of cross-cultural comparability. While the English source questionnaire asks about gender identity without using the word “gender” in any way by asking how the respondents would “describe themselves”, the German translation directly asks about “gender identity” and the Polish translation is worded as a sentence and simply asks respondents to indicate their “gender”. Formulating a question that unmistakenly asks about gender identity, and thus self-identification, remains challenging in many languages, and it is not possible to word the question in the same way across languages. For instance, in German, the meaning of a literal translation of the source “Would you describe yourself as…” remains unclear until the words “regarding your gender identity” are added to the question text. In Polish, in contrast, asking about gender self-identification is considered highly intrusive. Thus, a careful compromise must be found between keeping the construct of gender identity comparable across languages and countries, and remaining sensitive to linguistic and cultural nuances. We recommend that each country document their way of translating providing a rationale and an explanatory back translation.