That is the whole insurance business. It is nothing but a bet if you look at it by a single policy. E.g. your insurance bets you'll probably die at 70, so when you hit 71 you paid more than you get when you die. Your insurance wins. But when you die at 55 you "win" the bet.
But because there isn't just one but thousands of policies those bets aren't bets anymore, they're nothing but statistics. And one part is keeping track and calculating how old people born in year xy, in country ... with the gender zxy are going to be.
What about a free text field or just don't ask people about their gender?
Sometimes you have to ask for it. E.g. I work in the life insurance business and we need to know the gender for policy calculation.
Ok, but isn't that just to make vague generalizations about someone based on their gender?
That is the whole insurance business. It is nothing but a bet if you look at it by a single policy. E.g. your insurance bets you'll probably die at 70, so when you hit 71 you paid more than you get when you die. Your insurance wins. But when you die at 55 you "win" the bet. But because there isn't just one but thousands of policies those bets aren't bets anymore, they're nothing but statistics. And one part is keeping track and calculating how old people born in year xy, in country ... with the gender zxy are going to be.