What a Resume is Not

It's not a "dumping ground" for all your skills. (It's customized for each employer with the skills they need/want. Irrelevant skills can be omitted.)
It's not your entire life story. (We don't need to include everything you've ever done! We might choose to leave out some things.)
It's not more than one page. (Although there are rare exceptions to this general rule. You better have a good reason if yours is more than one page.)

List of Items to Not Include in a Resume

Here's a list of things we generally don't include in our resume. There might be rare exceptions to some things on the list. For example, I remember a job description for an underwater welding job that instructed the applicant to include height/weight on their resume because the job had specific requirements. However, 99% of the time there is no reason to include these items in our resume because it doesn't have anything to do with our ability to do the job.

Height/weight
Date of Birth/age
Number of Children (In countries other than the USA, this is a requirement for the resume, so that's why you might see a person list this.)
Marital Status/Civil Status (Again, countries other than the USA might require this. In the USA we don't include this information on our resume and employers should not ask you this.)
Social Security Number
A photo of yourself (What you look like usually doesn't have anything to do with your ability to do the job, photos/images can stop your resume from getting through an Applicant Tracking System, and showing a photo on a resume could lead to unconscious - or conscious - discrimination during screening based on your appearance, age, race, or gender.)

List of Items We *Might* Include in a Resume

We know that employers and hiring managers can unconsciously (or even consciously) discriminate against candidates when they are screening resumes. Employers may have a bias regarding a candidate if they see personal indicators or personal identifiers on a resume. Here are some examples:

Age (too old or too young for a job)
Gender
Personal pronouns
Race
Ethnicity
Tribal membership
LGBTQIA+ status
Parenthood status
Physical address/neighborhood
Religion
Political affiliations
Controversial clubs/affiliations (Example: National Rifle Association - NRA)
Mental Health identifiers
Neurodiversity indicators
Medical identifiers

I can think of many examples where a candidate decided to put their personal pronouns on their resume because they chose to share this information about themselves up front. It's important to the candidate and they are seeking an employer who values their employees and promotes bringing your whole self to work.

I can also think of many examples where a candidate was applying to an organization, such as the Center for Jewish Life in Kirkland, and so they included their faith as part of their resume because it related to their ability to do the job and the perspective they would bring to the position. Some faith-based employers will ask you to write a personal statement as part of your application.

So, there are instances where you might decide to include personal identifiers in your resume.

It's up to you how much you decide to tell the employer in the "resume stage" of your job search. We also know that studies show employers discriminate - even if they claim they don't. The 2017 Harvard Business School Research Study proved employers still discriminate based on race.

Some jobs such as Mental Health Peer Specialist, Diversity Manager, Democrat Campaign Manager, Social Media Manager - Republican Influencer, Neurodiversity Peer Mentor, LGBTQ Program Manager encourage people to apply who would have lived experiences, valuable perspectives, and deep insight in those roles. These are good examples where you might include your personal identifiers from the list to show you are a match for the job!

The bottom line is it's up to you what you choose to share on your resume with the employer.

Questions To Ask Yourself

What does my research indicate for this company/employer?
Does the employer embrace, promote, or encourage inclusiveness & diversity in its culture and on its webpages?
Do I feel safe to disclose?
Does the job description or job title include a focus on or relate to my personal identifiers?
What is listed in the job description?
Will adding an identifier to my resume be the key contributor to me getting an interview and getting the job?
What cities, states, communities am I applying in? What is the culture in that city/state/community?
What is important to me for people to know…about me…at this time?
Do my personal identifiers give me a perspective that would provide valuable contributions to the team, the customers, the product, etc.?

You decide what you put on your resume…and what you don’t.

Remember - we are talking about resumes in this section, not formal "form applications" which might require you "fill in" your date of birth or other identifier. Example: Many government job application forms will require you fill out a form that might include spots to put specific personal identifiers for security clearance reasons or other reasons or statistical/data gathering reasons. With a resume, you decide what you include and what you don't. A resume is a marketing document and a "form application" is a legal document you fill out and submit to the employer. Not all employers will require a form application as part of their hiring process. (Actually, not all employers will require a resume as part of their hiring process. But most will.)