On the Origins of Gender Identity

Abstract

Major questions of origin and development lie uncharted in the area between the physiological and the psychological: the origins of awareness and of self, the beginnings of structuring of the mind, the origin and development of gender identity. This paper concerns the development of feminine gender identity and assumes an epigenetic point of view. It proposes that gender identity, as other aspects of personality, does not arise fully formed at a given age as the result of given experiences. Rather, gender identity is the result of an integration by each individual of many confluent factors continuing well beyond childhood. These factors are originally physical—chromosomal, hormonal, anatomical. In the course of development, the importance of the physical factors in regard to gender identity formation recedes and is overridden by social and psychological factors. The latter are the more complex and have been the subject of extensive theorizing and controversy. We know something about how each factor contributes to the total picture, but how all are integrated to form a stable identity remains conjectural—perhaps forever.