Identity Development

Development of Gender Identity

Identity development is nonlinear, intersectional, and complex. It begins in infancy and continues throughout life and is affected by complex interactions of environment, culture, and biology. Identity frames much of what a person does in life. Gender identity development, like all human development, is influenced by both biology and environment. It is both stable, as well as a continually self-adjusting and dynamic matrix of attitudes, emotions, meaning, expectations, and experiences. The constant and dynamic interaction of person and environment makes it difficult to identify the specific or primary influences, within and external to oneself, on gender identity development.

As trans people develop physically, they begin to interact with their bodies in juxtaposition to what people tell them about bodies similar to and different from their own. Confusion or conflicts in gender identity development arise for the trans individual as they work to integrate differences between what they feel their gender is and what everyone else expects it to be.

Expectations of gender identity development are both overt and implied. Adults tend to refer to others in gendered terms that reflect and reinforce the gender identity expected of people based on known or assumed sex assigned at birth. Children are told repeatedly by people, books, and media how the culture “wants” them to identify their own gender using their bodies as points of reference for gender identity and social roles. By a very young age (usually around 3 years), most children can readily identify and assign the gender categories of man/boy or woman/girl using culturally normative behaviors, clothing, colors, grooming characteristics (e.g., short or long hair, beards), tasks or jobs (e.g., cooking, childcare, firefighter, construction), and vocal pitch, tone, and inflection. Subsequently, children begin to identify inwardly and outwardly with activities and people that they identify as being like themselves. They may begin to emulate the various characteristics and identities they resonate with through make-believe and imaginative play as well as identifying themselves with characters in books and media. They may try on and integrate or reject things that feel most in or out of tune with their developing self-image and gender identity. In this process, trans children may identify with gender roles that are incongruent with their assigned sex and may in turn encounter intolerance and pressure by others to comply with expected gender norms. Expressing a gender identity contrary to social pressure is not always possible for trans people, and many comply with expected gender behaviors and/or repress their internal gender identity to survive.

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