Gender

When to use

When asking for information about a user’s gender.

When to consider something else

If the client lives in denial that this is the 21st Century or is ignorant that gender is a social construct that not all cultures view the same way, you may have to use a radio button group.

Often you don’t need to collect information about gender. Consider whether the field is necessary.

Guidance

Some people may not be comfortable providing their gender. Unless required for a specific purpose, the user should be able to opt out of providing their gender.

You should not ask for biological sex unless absolutely necessary to do so, such as in a medical application. If you require biological sex, label it as such.

Validating input

You should not run any specific validation on gender.

Autofill

Use autocomplete="sex" to autofill. Note that, despite the name, this value contains the gender identity of the user and not their biological sex.

Also note that the W3C specification states that gender is a free text field. The autocomplete attribute is not guaranteed to work with radio buttons.

Internationalisation

Some countries legally recognise a third gender/sex marker on legal documentation. This is normally shown as an X, in contrast to F (female) and M (male).

In addition to more contemporary conceptions of gender as a spectrum of possible options, some cultures have long histories of transgender and non-binary gender identities. This includes the Bugis people of Indonesia, who have five genders, Native American two-spirits and Thai kathoey.

When asking for biological sex, be aware that a small but significant percentage of people are intersex, wherein they are born with a mixture of male and female sexual characteristics—making them neither male or female biologically.