This thesis advances demographic research by adopting a diverse gender perspective, going beyond the binary. The main aim is to provide empirical evidence of the relation between gender diversity and life outcomes, and to question gender conceptualizations commonly used in demographic research. This work shows how both current and innovative data sources and methods can provide new perspectives on life outcomes for increasingly diverse populations.
The first paper demonstrates that measuring gender multidimensionally reveals educational inequalities that remain invisible when using binary classifications, showing how trans non-binary individuals experience distinct penalties in terms of educational attainment. The second paper presents how gender can be studied with a dynamic perspective by applying a life course perspective to examine gender identity milestones, focusing on the events of self-realisation and disclosure, and their interplay with birth cohort. The third paper uses behavioural data from a dating application to investigate how gender identification shapes digital dating experiences, revealing that transgender, non-binary, and gender-diverse users engage more actively in terms of liking, yet receive systematically lower returns in the form of matches.
These studies demonstrate that incorporating gender diversity is not merely about adding categories, but requires rethinking how demographers conceptualise and measure gender. The findings highlight persistent inequalities and differences for gender-diverse populations across educational, life course, and intimate relationship domains, with implications for understanding stratification, well-being, and the role of institutions, from schools to digital platforms, in reproducing or challenging gender-based exclusion.