The language around sex and gender identity is always changing and it is important to understand the difference between them.

Sex is categorisation based usually on someone's external genitals at birth. A person may be assigned male, female or intersex. However, a person's sex is actually a combination of bodily characteristics including: chromosomes, hormones, internal and external reproductive organs, and secondary sex characteristics.

Gender refers to social roles and behaviours that have been learned, are changeable over time, and have wide variations both within and between cultures.

Gender identity describes someone's personal and intimate sense of their own gender, for example whether someone describes themselves as a woman, or as non-binary. Everybody has a gender identity.

Intersex refers to people who may have the biological attributes associated with both male and female bodies, or whose biological attributes do not fit with societal assumptions about male or female bodies. Intersex people can have any gender identity.

Binary gender terms (man/woman, girl/boy) have traditional associations with sex, but we now recognise that some people identify with a gender other than that assigned to them as a child (trans) and others identify neither as men nor women (non-binary or genderfluid).

Where it is not clear what, if any, gendered pronouns or nouns are appropriate for someone, we ask ‘what are your pronouns?’ and respect their wishes.

The IWG* avoids gender-biased expressions or expressions that reinforce gender stereotypes e.g. ‘man up’, ‘that’s a woman’s job’, ‘cry like a girl’

Quick Gide

For more information, click here for the Sex and Gender Identity page.

*Thanks to the Inclusion Working Group at Bury Council for the article.

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