Survey Demographics: Do No Harm and Do Better
The demographic section of a survey is probably the part of my job that is the most anxiety-inducing.
Am I asking the questions in the right way? Is everyone represented in a way that feels affirming and authentic to who they are as a person? How do I make sure race AND ethnicity are appropriately accounted for while knowing that realistically, I can’t list every possible option? Is including “Transgender Man” or “Transgender Woman” inclusive or othering? What order should I list answer options in? Should there be an “other” option? All of this is happening in my brain while balancing the fact that some of our clients are concerned that many of their stakeholders will be put off by the inclusiveness.
“In life, I generally fall back on my Methodist roots of “do no harm” to guide me in decision making and survey writing is no different. ”
At the end of the day, I would certainly rather receive a comment from a survey respondent complaining about how they found all of the choices offensive than from someone who felt othered or unseen. Though, we definitely hear from the former much more than the latter – an unfortunate outcome of their respective lived experiences.
The land of inclusiveness in surveys has changed dramatically in the past decade. Looking back on some of the first surveys I constructed for The Spark Mill 5-6 years ago is hard.
Since then, our demographic questions have had many many revisions. We devote a good amount of time to reading and researching everything from how the census handles demographics (the safe approach) to reading the latest best practice recommendations from organizations like Race Forward and Stanford’s Clayman Institute for Gender Research. The guidance differs and there appears to be no definitive right way, so we are left to make the very best decision we can with the information we have.
You should know, I hate being wrong. My team would probably attribute it to my being an enneagram 5. I think it’s just who I am at my core. The only thing I hate more than being wrong (and the sound of loud chewing) is knowing that a decision I made or action I took negatively impacted another person. So, looking back on those old surveys was complicated.
The way I see it, though, we have two choices:
Fail to acknowledge our missteps and double down to avoid eating crow
Be accountable for our missteps and do better going forward
My hope is that next year, TSM looks back on some of our decisions from this year and shake our heads at how we got it wrong because that means we are growing.
If you are on the journey to do better tomorrow and are feeling stuck or maybe you are working on a survey and want to be more inclusive, feel free to reach out.
I can say with certainty that we are not getting everything right, but we are happy to share what we know. Additionally, if you happen to be a recipient of a TSM authored survey and feel othered or unseen, we welcome your feedback.