Gender and sex

Only write about gender or sex if it's relevant to the content and necessary. 

Use gender neutral text, such as 'them', 'their' or 'they'. For example, 'if your councillor can help, they'll write to you'.

If you need to refer to a binary gender, use:

• 'men' or 'man', rather than 'male'
• 'women' or 'woman', rather than 'female'

For example, '33% of our senior leaders are women'.

When to use sex and when to use gender

Sex refers to biological characteristics, such as anatomy and chromosomes. Categories include male, female and intersex, which includes Differences of Sex Development (DSD). Information about DSD is available on the NHS website.

Gender relates to how a person thinks and feels about themselves and how society sees them. A person’s gender could be different to the sex they were assigned at birth. Gender includes identities such as man, woman and nonbinary.