Gender Identity

Gender identity is the extent to which one identifies with a particular gender; it is a person's individual sense and subjective experience of being a man, a woman, or another gender. It is often shaped early in life and consists primarily of the acceptance (or non-acceptance) of one's membership into a gender category. In most societies, there is a basic division between gender attributes assigned to males and females. In all societies, however, some individuals do not identify with some (or all) of the aspects of gender that are assigned to their biological sex. 

Those that identify with the gender that corresponds to the sex assigned to them at birth (for example, they are assigned female at birth and continue to identify as a girl, and later a woman) are called cisgender. In many Western cultures, individuals who identify with a gender that is different from their biological sex (for example, they are assigned female at birth but feel inwardly that they are a boy or a gender other than a girl) are called transgender. Some transgender individuals, if they have access to resources and medical care, choose to alter their bodies through medical interventions such as surgery and hormonal therapy so that their physical being is better aligned with their gender identity. Recent terms such as "genderqueer," "genderfluid," "gender variant," "androgynous," "agender," and "gender nonconforming" are used by individuals who do not identify within the gender binary as either a man or a woman; instead they identify as existing somewhere along a spectrum or continuum of genders, or outside of the spectrum altogether, often in a way that is continuously evolving.

Gender Identity Development

While gender identity is very fluid among young children, it is usually believed to form between ages 3 and 6. However, many transgender, genderqueer, or genderfluid individuals are not able to embrace their true gender identity until much later in life, largely due to both societal pressure to conform to the gender binary and the societal stigma associated with transgender identities. Studies suggest that children develop gender identity in three distinct stages: 

1. As toddlers and preschoolers, children learn about defined characteristics and socialized aspects of gender.
2. Around age 5–7, gender identity becomes rigid in a process known as consolidation.
3. After this "peak of rigidity," fluidity returns and socially defined gender roles relax somewhat.

Factors that Influence Gender Identity

Although the formation of gender identity is not completely understood, many factors have been suggested as influencing its development. Biological factors that may influence gender identity include pre- and post-natal hormone levels and genetic makeup. Social factors include ideas regarding gender roles conveyed by family, authority figures, mass media, and other influential people in a child's life. Children are shaped and molded by the people surrounding them, who they try to imitate and follow. According to social-learning theory, children develop their gender identity through observing and imitating the gender-linked behaviors of others; they are then rewarded for imitating the behaviors of people of the same gender and punished for imitating the behaviors of another gender. For example, male children will often be rewarded for imitating their father's love of baseball, but punished or redirected in some way if they imitate their older sister's love of dolls.

Another factor that has a significant role in the process of gender identity is language; while learning a language, children learn to separate masculine and feminine characteristics and unconsciously adjust their own behavior to these predetermined roles. Competition for economic and social power can also influence one's gender identity, as gender is highly stratified (with men having more societal and economic power and privilege than women and other genders) in our culture. 

The development of gender identity

The formation of gender identity is influenced by social factors, such as family. Fathers tend to be more involved when their sons engage in gender-appropriate activities such as sports.

Gender-Schema Theory

Gender-schema theory was formally introduced by Sandra Bem in 1981 as a cognitive theory to explain how individuals become gendered in society. It describes how sex-linked characteristics are maintained and transmitted to other members of a culture. According to gender-schema theory, gender-associated information is predominantly transmitted through society by way of schemata, or networks that allow for some types of information to be more easily assimilated than others. Bem argues that there are individual differences in the degree to which people hold these gender schemata. These differences are manifested via the degree to which individuals are sex-typed. Bem refers to four categories into which an individual may fall: 

1. Sex-typed individuals process and integrate information that is in line with their assigned gender. 
2. Cross-sex-typed individuals process and integrate information that is in line with the gender opposite to the one they were assigned. 
3. Androgynous individuals process and integrate traits and information from both genders. 
4. Finally, undifferentiated individuals do not show efficient processing of sex-typed information.

Queer Theory

According to proponents of queer theory, gender identity is not a rigid or static identity but can continue to evolve and change over time. Queer theory developed in response to the perceived limitations of the way in which identities are thought to become consolidated or stabilized (for instance, gay or straight), and theorists constructed queerness in an attempt to resist this. In this way, the theory attempts to maintain a critique rather than define a specific identity. While "queer" defies a simple definition, the term is often used to convey an identity that is not rigidly developed, but is instead fluid and changing.