How are sex and gender defined in Australia?

While the terms sex and gender are often used interchangeably, they have different meanings. This is your guide to understanding how sex and gender are recognised and defined in Australia.

Define sex

A person’s sex is based upon their sex characteristics, such as their chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs. While typically based upon the sex characteristics observed and recorded at birth or infancy, a person’s reported sex can change over the course of their lifetime and may differ from their sex recorded at birth.

Source: ABS

Define gender

Gender is a social and cultural concept. It is about social and cultural differences in identity, expression and experience as a man, woman or non-binary person. Non-binary is an umbrella term describing gender identities that are not exclusively male or female.

Source: ABS

Other important definitions

Define variations of sex characteristics

Variations of sex characteristics refers to people with innate genetic, hormonal or physical sex characteristics that do not conform to medical norms for female or male bodies. It refers to a wide spectrum of variations to genitals, hormones, chromosomes and/or reproductive organs.

Source: ABS

Define sexual orientation

Sexual orientation is an umbrella concept that encapsulates:

sexual identity (how a person thinks of their sexuality and the terms they identify with)
attraction (romantic or sexual interest in another person)
behaviour (sexual behaviour).’

Source: ABS

How these definitions protect people and data

The ABS 2020 Standard for Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation Variables defines how these variables should be collected and reported across Australia.

These statistical definitions sit alongside a broader framework of Australian laws and policies that protect people from discrimination and support inclusion.

At the federal level, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) makes it unlawful to discriminate on the basis of sex, sexual orientation, gender identity and intersex status in key areas of public life such as employment, education and access to services and accommodation.

In 2013, amendments to this Act strengthened protections by explicitly recognising gender identity and intersex status as protected attributes. These protections are supplemented by federal government guidelines that support recognition of self-identified gender in official records.

Additionally, many state and territory anti-discrimination laws provide protections on similar grounds, helping ensure inclusive and respectful treatment for people of all sexes, genders, sexual orientations, and those born with variations of sex characteristics.

Why these definitions matter

Clear definitions of sex, gender and related variables help create safer, more inclusive environments.
They support accurate legal rights and protections, guide workplaces and services to meet people’s needs, and reduce the risk of discrimination or misunderstanding.

Sex and gender are also important considerations in health and medical research. When they are recognised in the evidence base, healthcare becomes more accurate, effective, and inclusive. This is because sex and gender influence how conditions present, how symptoms are understood, and how treatments work, and these differences need to be reflected when treatments are tested and prescribed.

They also improve the accuracy of health and population data, which directly affects policy, funding and community support. Most importantly, shared language helps ensure respectful communication so everyone can be recognised and treated with dignity.

Australian resources

Have a question about sex and gender?

What is the definition of gender?

According to the ABS, gender is a social and cultural concept. It describes the ways people understand themselves and how they express and experience being a man, woman or a non-binary person. While sex relates to physical sex characteristics, gender is about identity, expression and lived experience, and these may or may not align with the sex recorded at birth.

Gender includes several connected ideas:

Gender identity: a person’s internal sense of who they are. This may be man, woman, non-binary, or another identity.
Gender expression: how someone presents their gender through appearance, behaviour or mannerisms. Expression can also vary depending on the environment, such as at work versus at home.
Gender experience: how someone’s gender aligns (or does not align) with the sex recorded for them at birth. This includes experiences described as cis (aligned) or trans (not aligned).

The ABS also notes that non-binary is an umbrella term for gender identities that are not exclusively man or woman. Some people use another term entirely, and some do not identify with the concept of gender at all.

Gender is not fixed for everyone. A person’s gender may remain the same throughout their life or may change over time. It may also differ from what appears on legal documents, and it may not be visible to others. For these reasons, the ABS emphasises that assumptions about someone’s gender should never be made based on name, appearance, voice or any other characteristic.

In short, gender describes how a person understands themselves, how they express that identity, and how they experience their relationship to the sex recorded at birth. It is a lived, personal and sometimes fluid aspect of who they are.

What is the definition of sex?

Sex is based on a person’s sex characteristics, including chromosomes, hormones and reproductive organs. It is typically based on the sex characteristics observed and recorded at birth or infancy, but a person’s reported sex can change over the course of their life and may not always align with what was recorded at birth.

What does intersex mean?

The official definition of intersex according to the ABS is: ‘Intersex refers to people with innate genetic, hormonal or physical sex characteristics that do not conform to medical norms for female or male bodies. This is also called ‘variations of sex characteristics’ or ‘DSD’.’

What is the definition of transgender?

Transgender refers to a person whose gender experience does not align with the sex recorded for them at birth. In other words, their current gender (how they identify, express themselves and experience themselves as a man, woman or non-binary person) differs from what was originally determined based on sex characteristics at birth or infancy.

Being transgender is about a person’s felt and lived gender, not their anatomy or legal documents. Someone may identify as a man, woman or non-binary, regardless of the sex that was recorded for them at birth. Gender can also change over time, and a person’s gender response reflects who they are at the point in time they are asked.

What does cisgender mean?

Cisgender describes a person whose gender experience aligns with the sex recorded for them at birth. In the ABS framework, this means the gender a person identifies with matches the sex that was originally determined based on their sex characteristics at birth or infancy. A cisgender person may identify and express their gender in many different ways, but their lived or felt gender is the same as their sex recorded at birth.

What is the definition of non-binary gender?

Non-binary is an umbrella term used to describe gender identities that are not exclusively as a man or woman. In the ABS Standard, non-binary sits within the broader definition of gender as a social and cultural concept that relates to identity, expression and experience.

Someone who is non-binary may identify with aspects of man or woman, with neither, or with a different gender altogether. Their felt or lived gender may shift over time or remain stable, and it may differ from the sex recorded for them at birth. Non-binary people are recognised as describing a valid gender in their own right, and the term reflects the diversity of ways people experience and express their gender.

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