A Developmental Line of Gender Identity, Gender Role, and Choice of Love Object

A schematic overview of the development of male and female gender identity has been presented with an attempt to formulate a developmental line. The steps include: (Table: see text) In discussion of these steps an effort was made to distinguish between core morphological or core gender identity--that is, the primary sense of being male or female, to which other aspects of gender identity are added over the course of development to eventually include a "mix" of masculinity and femininity; gender role identity, which includes the conscious and unconscious mental representations of dialogues with other people vis-à-vis one's gender identity as well as identification with role models; and the separate process of choosing a sexual partner orientation. These separate strands join together and intermingle to make up what we view globally as "gender identity."