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How Can Pharma Seek To Discuss Gender Diversity?

Communications Ought To Be Both Accessible And Inclusive

 
• By Chloe Kent

As gender-neutral language becomes more widely used throughout the business community, the pharmaceutical industry must confront how it approaches the matter of gendered language in healthcare communications.

Symbols of man, woman and transgender on dark background
While often used synonymously, sex and gender are not the same thing. • Source: Shutterstock

Gender-neutral language is increasingly being adopted across different industries, including in certain health care and pharmaceutical communications, to be more inclusive towards a wider range of people. By using terms such as “individuals with a prostate” or “patients with breast cancer,” the communications in question are aiming to consider the experiences of transgender individuals, whose gender identity is different to their physical sex.

Clarifying Language Used In This Article

Though often used synonymously, the categories of sex and gender are not one and the same thing. While sex refers to the nature of an individual’s biology, whether they are male, female or intersex, gender instead refers to a sense of personal identity, and whether they move through the world and perceive themselves as a man, as a woman or as non-binary.

Throughout this article, the terms ‘female’ and ‘male’ will be used to clarify distinctions of the former category, while ‘woman’ and ‘man’ will be used for the latter, irrespective of sex. In everyday speech these terms are often used interchangeably, but an effort has been made to draw an explicit sex/gender distinction here. When necessary, the term cisgender (cis) will be used to signify persons whose sex corresponds to their gender identity, while transgender (trans) will be used to denote those whose identity does not correspond to their sex.

This is done for clarity in an article which, much like the medical communications it seeks to examine, is intended for a wide audience.

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