Sex and Gender

Sex and gender are distinct concepts, so it may be cause for confusion that gender is specified on tables labeling it sex. This is due to administrative inertia and only sex having been tracked previously, then only gender.

Sex is the biological aspects of masculinity and femininity, and the full spectrum around and between. In the overwhelming majority of cases it can be specified as a simple binary: male or female.

Gender is the psycho-social aspects of masculinity and femininity, including non-binary identities. People may be labeled "Male", "Female", "Queer", "Agender", or "Dual" (dual includes fluid identities).

Effects of Sex
Though men and women both span the full range of human potential, their distribution is different and as such in the aggregate there are definite differences between men and women. These differences are probabilistic, recognizing that there are no absolute rules.

Differences Between the Sexes

 * Women are 50% more likely to possess psionic aptitude than men are. As such, psionicists are about 60% female.
 * Female psionicists are more likely to possess telepathic, empathic and healing abilities and male psionicists are more likely to possess direct attacks, strength abilities, and danger sense. These are not hard rules, they are probabilities. For instance, female psionicists are twice as likely to possess empathic abilities as male psionicists are, while only 30% more likely to possess healing.
 * Men are and always have been built larger and stronger on average. Testosterone also promotes aggression. One result of this is that the Alliance Marine Corps is still 65% male while the Alliance Navy is 52% female.
 * Men, on average, have slightly better spacial awareness. As such, naval aviation forces are 57% male. This climbs to 62% for marine aviation, but that is actually disproportionately female for the Marines.
 * Women, on average, have slightly better multitasking ability. This causes there to be a disproportionate number of women in fields like signals and BCI operations. A bare majority of the AFMC signals corps is female, while the Marine Corps itself is 2/3 male.

Transsexualism
Transsexuals have a mix of male and female attributes dependent on their stage of transition and how much of their birth sex's puberty they went through. They are neurologically their gender identity, so for all psionic and mental traits they are in line with that gender, regardless of stage of transition. For instance, transsexual women are 50% more likely than cisgender or transsexual men to possess psionic aptitude. Late in transition and post-transition, they are mostly in line with their identity physically. Trans men are far more common than trans women in the Marines, for example. Means of transition can make a difference, too. Those who transition psionically are completely indistinguishable from their cisgender counterparts, while those who do so medically find an imperfect, never fully complete physical transition.

Effects of Orientation
For reasons completely unknown, there is a strong correlation between sexual orientation and psionic aptitude. Homosexuals are 50% more likely to possess psionic abilities than heterosexuals, and bisexuals 25% more likely. Combining with other factors, this means that elven lesbian women are 250% more likely to have psionic abilities than straight dwarven men. Similarly, while gay and bisexual women are only about 5% the general population, they comprise nearly 10% of the Alliance Psi Corps.