Nonbinary Genders

The overwhelming majority of psychological studies have assumed that gender is binary, often to the point of focusing on a search for differences between men and women. The topic of [Page 817]genders that fall outside of the common cultural binary of women and men has been underresearched in psychology to date, with only a small number of psychologists focusing on the area in any depth.

This entry provides a history of psychological work that has taken account of gender experiences that fall outside of the binary, focusing on Sandra Bem’s classic research on androgyny and gender schema theory. It then summarizes the findings of the limited number of recent psychological studies that understand gender in a more diverse way and explore the experience of people who ...