If you’ve applied for a job recently, you’ve probably come across a question asking for your sex or gender. And if you’re like me, you might have paused for a second and wondered: Why does this matter?

Job applications are supposed to assess candidates based on skills, experience, and qualifications. So why is gender—something unrelated to our ability to do a job—still a common question? In an era where inclusivity and diversity are priorities, it’s worth examining why employers ask for this information and whether they should be asking at all.

Legal and Compliance Reasons

One reason employers collect gender data is for compliance with equal opportunity laws. In the U.S., for example, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) requires larger employers to report demographic data to track workplace diversity and prevent discrimination. Companies may also use this information to measure their diversity and inclusion efforts internally.

That said, providing this information is almost always voluntary. Still, for job seekers, there’s often an underlying concern: Could this influence hiring decisions? While laws prohibit gender-based discrimination, unconscious bias is real, and it’s not hard to see how collecting this data before a candidate is even interviewed might create an unnecessary risk of bias creeping in.

Gender as a Data Point vs. Bias in Hiring

Some argue that collecting gender data helps improve workplace equity, allowing organizations to identify gaps and take steps to correct disparities. But the flip side is that knowing a candidate’s gender too early in the process could lead to bias—whether conscious or not. Studies have shown that gendered names alone can impact hiring decisions, with women and nonbinary candidates often facing more scrutiny or lower salaries.

If the goal is fairness, wouldn’t a better approach be to collect this information after hiring decisions are made? That way, companies can still track diversity without influencing the hiring process itself.

Beyond the Binary: The Issue of Inclusivity

Another problem is that many applications still limit responses to “Male” and “Female,” leaving out nonbinary, genderqueer, and other identities. Some have updated their forms to include an “Other” or “Prefer Not to Say” option, but even these feel inadequate for truly inclusive hiring practices. If gender isn’t relevant to the role, why ask at all?

What’s the Alternative?

If companies genuinely want to track and improve diversity, they could collect gender data separately from job applications—perhaps through anonymous surveys after hiring decisions are made. Another option is focusing more on skills-based hiring, where blind recruitment methods remove names and demographic details from resumes to eliminate bias.

Ultimately, the goal should be a hiring process that ensures fairness and equal opportunity without unnecessary personal data creating potential barriers. Maybe it’s time we rethink the role of gender on job applications altogether.