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The Experiences, Challenges and Hopes of Transgender and Nonbinary U.S. Adults

Findings from pew research center focus groups, table of contents, introduction.

Transgender and nonbinary people have gained visibility in the U.S. in recent years as celebrities from  Laverne Cox  to  Caitlyn Jenner  to  Elliot Page  have spoken openly about their gender transitions. On March 30, 2022, the White House issued a proclamation  recognizing Transgender Day of Visibility , the first time a U.S. president has done so.  

More recently, singer and actor Janelle Monáe  came out as nonbinary , while the U.S. State Department and Social Security Administration announced that Americans  will be allowed to select “X” rather than “male” or “female” for their sex  marker on their passport and Social Security applications. 

At the same time, several states have enacted or are considering legislation that would  limit the rights of transgender and nonbinary people . These include bills requiring people to use public bathrooms that correspond with the sex they were assigned at birth, prohibiting trans athletes from competing on teams that match their gender identity, and restricting the availability of health care to trans youth seeking to medically transition. 

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that 1.6% of U.S. adults are transgender or nonbinary – that is, their gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes people who describe themselves as a man, a woman or nonbinary, or who use terms such as gender fluid or agender to describe their gender. While relatively few U.S. adults are transgender, a growing share say they know someone who is (44% today vs.  37% in 2017 ). One-in-five say they know someone who doesn’t identify as a man or woman. 

In order to better understand the experiences of transgender and nonbinary adults at a time when gender identity is at the center of many national debates, Pew Research Center conducted a series of focus groups with trans men, trans women and nonbinary adults on issues ranging from their gender journey, to how they navigate issues of gender in their day-to-day life, to what they see as the most pressing policy issues facing people who are trans or nonbinary. This is part of a larger study that includes a survey of the general public on their attitudes about gender identity and issues related to people who are transgender or nonbinary.

The terms  transgender  and  trans  are used interchangeably throughout this essay to refer to people whose gender is different from the sex they were assigned at birth. This includes, but is not limited to, transgender men (that is, men who were assigned female at birth) and transgender women (women who were assigned male at birth). 

Nonbinary adults  are defined here as those who are neither a man nor a woman or who aren’t strictly one or the other. While some nonbinary focus group participants sometimes use different terms to describe themselves, such as “gender queer,” “gender fluid” or “genderless,” all said the term “nonbinary” describes their gender in the screening questionnaire. Some, but not all, nonbinary participants also consider themselves to be transgender.

References to  gender transitions  relate to the process through which trans and nonbinary people express their gender as different from social expectations associated with the sex they were assigned at birth. This may include social, legal and medical transitions. The social aspect of a gender transition may include going by a new name or using different pronouns, or expressing their gender through their dress, mannerisms, gender roles or other ways. The legal aspect may include legally changing their name or changing their sex or gender designation on legal documents or identification.  Medical care  may include treatments such as hormone therapy, laser hair removal and/or surgery. 

References to  femme  indicate feminine gender expression. This is often in contrast to “masc,” meaning masculine gender expression.

Cisgender  is used to describe people whose gender matches the sex they were assigned at birth and who do not identify as transgender or nonbinary. 

Misgendering  is defined as referring to or addressing a person in ways that do not align with their gender identity, including using incorrect pronouns, titles (such as “sir” or “ma’am”), and other terms (such as “son” or “daughter”) that do not match their gender. 

References to  dysphoria  may include feelings of distress due to the mismatch of one’s gender and sex assigned at birth, as well as a  diagnosis of gender dysphoria , which is sometimes a prerequisite for access to health care and medical transitions.

The acronym  LGBTQ+  refers to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or, in some cases, questioning), and other sexual orientations or gender identities that are not straight or cisgender, such as intersex, asexual or pansexual. 

Pew Research Center conducted this research to better understand the experiences and views of transgender and nonbinary U.S. adults. Because transgender and nonbinary people make up only about 1.6% of the adult U.S. population, this is a difficult population to reach with a probability-based, nationally representative survey. As an alternative, we conducted a series of focus groups with trans and nonbinary adults covering a variety of topics related to the trans and nonbinary experience. This allows us to go more in-depth on some of these topics than a survey would typically allow, and to share these experiences in the participants’ own words.

For this project, we conducted six online focus groups, with a total of 27 participants (four to five participants in each group), from March 8-10, 2022. Participants were recruited by targeted email outreach among a panel of adults who had previously said on a survey that they were transgender or nonbinary, as well as via connections through professional networks and LGBTQ+ organizations, followed by a screening call. Candidates were eligible if they met the technology requirements to participate in an online focus group and if they either said they consider themselves to be transgender or if they said their gender was nonbinary or another identity other than man or woman (regardless of whether or not they also said they were transgender). For more details, see the  Methodology . 

Participants who qualified were placed in groups as follows: one group of nonbinary adults only (with a nonbinary moderator); one group of trans women only (with a trans woman moderator); one group of trans men only (with a trans man moderator); and three groups with a mix of trans and nonbinary adults (with either a nonbinary moderator or a trans man moderator). All of the moderators had extensive experience facilitating groups, including with transgender and nonbinary participants. 

The participants were a mix of ages, races/ethnicities, and were from all corners of the country. For a detailed breakdown of the participants’ demographic characteristics, see the  Methodology .

The findings are not statistically representative and cannot be extrapolated to wider populations.

Some quotes have been lightly edited for clarity or to remove identifying details. In this essay, participants are identified as trans men, trans women, or nonbinary adults based on their answers to the screening questionnaire. These words don’t necessarily encompass all of the ways in which participants described their gender. Participants’ ages are grouped into the following categories:  late teens; early/mid/late 20s, 30s and 40s; and 50s and 60s (those ages 50 to 69 were grouped into bigger “buckets” to better preserve their anonymity).

These focus groups were not designed to be representative of the entire population of trans and nonbinary U.S. adults, but the participants’ stories provide a glimpse into some of the experiences of people who are transgender and/or nonbinary. The groups included a total of 27 transgender and nonbinary adults from around the U.S. and ranging in age from late teens to mid-60s. Most currently live in an urban area, but about half said they grew up in a suburb. The groups included a mix of White, Black, Hispanic, Asian and multiracial American participants. See  Methodology  for more details.

Identity and the gender journey

Most focus group participants said they knew from an early age – many as young as preschool or elementary school – that there was something different about them, even if they didn’t have the words to describe what it was. Some described feeling like they didn’t fit in with other children of their sex but didn’t know exactly why. Others said they felt like they were in the wrong body. 

“I remember preschool, [where] the boys were playing on one side and the girls were playing on the other, and I just had a moment where I realized what side I was supposed to be on and what side people thought I was supposed to be on. … Yeah, I always knew that I was male, since my earliest memories.” – Trans man, late 30s

“As a small child, like around kindergarten [or] first grade … I just was [fascinated] by how some people were small girls, and some people were small boys, and it was on my mind constantly. And I started to feel very uncomfortable, just existing as a young girl.” – Trans man, early 30s

“I was 9 and I was at day camp and I was changing with all the other 9-year-old girls … and I remember looking at everybody’s body around me and at my own body, and even though I was visually seeing the exact shapeless nine-year-old form, I literally thought to myself, ‘oh, maybe I was supposed to be a boy,’ even though I know I wasn’t seeing anything different. … And I remember being so unbothered by the thought, like not a panic, not like, ‘oh man, I’m so different, like everybody here I’m so different and this is terrible,’ I was like, ‘oh, maybe I was supposed to be a boy,’ and for some reason that exact quote really stuck in my memory.” – Nonbinary person, late 30s

“Since I was little, I felt as though I was a man who, when they were passing out bodies, someone made a goof and I got a female body instead of the male body that I should have had. But I was forced by society, especially at that time growing up, to just make my peace with having a female body.” – Nonbinary person, 50s

“I’ve known ever since I was little. I’m not really sure the age, but I just always knew when I put on boy clothes, I just felt so uncomfortable.” – Trans woman, late 30s

“It was probably as early as I can remember that I wasn’t like my brother or my father [and] not exactly like my girl cousins but I was something else, but I didn’t know what it was.” – Nonbinary person, 60s

Many participants were well into adulthood before they found the words to describe their gender. For those focus group participants, the path to self-discovery varied. Some described meeting someone who was transgender and relating to their experience; others described learning about people who are trans or nonbinary in college classes or by doing their own research.  

“I read a Time magazine article … called ‘Homosexuality in America’ … in 1969. … Of course, we didn’t have language like we do now or people were not willing to use it … [but] it was kind of the first word that I had ever heard that resonated with me at all. So, I went to school and I took the magazine, we were doing show-and-tell, and I stood up in front of the class and said, ‘I am a homosexual.’ So that began my journey to figure this stuff out.” – Nonbinary person, 60s

“It wasn’t until maybe I was 20 or so when my friend started his transition where I was like, ‘Wow, that sounds very similar to the emotions and challenges I am going through with my own identity.’ … My whole life from a very young age I was confused, but I didn’t really put a name on it until I was about 20.” – Nonbinary person, late 20s

“I knew about drag queens, but I didn’t know what trans was until I got to college and was exposed to new things, and that was when I had a word for myself for the first time.” – Trans man, early 40s

“I thought that by figuring out that I was interested in women, identifying as lesbian, I thought [my anxiety and sadness] would dissipate in time, and that was me cracking the code. But then, when I got older, I left home for the first time. I started to meet other trans people in the world. That’s when I started to become equipped with the vocabulary. The understanding that this is a concept, and this makes sense. And that’s when I started to understand that I wasn’t cisgender.” – Trans man, early 30s

“When I took a human sexuality class in undergrad and I started learning about gender and different sexualities and things like that, I was like, ‘oh my god. I feel seen.’ So, that’s where I learned about it for the first time and started understanding how I identify.” – Nonbinary person, mid-20s

Focus group participants used a wide range of words to describe how they see their gender. For many nonbinary participants, the term “nonbinary” is more of an umbrella term, but when it comes to how they describe themselves, they tend to use words like “gender queer” or “gender fluid.” The word “queer” came up many times across different groups, often to describe anyone who is not straight or cisgender. Some trans men and women preferred just the terms “man” or “woman,” while some identified strongly with the term “transgender.” The graphic below shows just some of the words the participants used to describe their gender.

The way nonbinary people conceptualize their gender varies. Some said they feel like they’re both a man and a woman – and how much they feel like they are one or the other may change depending on the day or the circumstance. Others said they don’t feel like they are either a man or a woman, or that they don’t have a gender at all. Some, but not all, also identified with the term transgender. 

“I had days where I would go out and just play with the boys and be one of the boys, and then there would be times that I would play with the girls and be one of the girls. And then I just never really knew what I was. I just knew that I would go back and forth.” – Nonbinary person, mid-20s

“Growing up with more of a masculine side or a feminine side, I just never was a fan of the labelling in terms of, ‘oh, this is a bit too masculine, you don’t wear jewelry, you don’t wear makeup, oh you’re not feminine enough.’ … I used to alternate just based on who I felt I was. So, on a certain day if I felt like wearing a dress, or a skirt versus on a different day, I felt like wearing what was considered men’s pants. … So, for me it’s always been both.” – Nonbinary person, mid-30s

“I feel like my gender is so amorphous and hard to hold and describe even. It’s been important to find words for it, to find the outlines of it, to see the shape of it, but it’s not something that I think about as who I am, because I’m more than just that.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“What words would I use to describe me? Genderless, if gender wasn’t a thing. … I guess if pronouns didn’t exist and you just called me [by my name]. That’s what my gender is. … And I do use nonbinary also, just because it feels easier, I guess.” – Nonbinary person, late 20s

Some participants said their gender is one of the most important parts of their identity, while others described it as one of many important parts or a small piece of how they see themselves. For some, the focus on gender can get tiring. Those who said gender isn’t a central – or at least not the most central – part of their identity mentioned race, ethnicity, religion and socioeconomic class as important aspects that shape their identity and experiences.

“It is tough because [gender] does affect every factor of your life. If you are doing medical transitioning then you have appointments, you have to pay for the appointments, you have to be working in a job that supports you to pay for those appointments. So, it is definitely integral, and it has a lot of branches. And it deals with how you act, how you relate to friends, you know, I am sure some of us can relate to having to come out multiple times in our lives. That is why sexuality and gender are very integral and I would definitely say I am proud of it. And I think being able to say that I am proud of it, and my gender, I guess is a very important part of my identity.” – Nonbinary person, late 20s

“Sometimes I get tired of thinking about my gender because I am actively [undergoing my medical transition]. So, it is a lot of things on my mind right now, constantly, and it sometimes gets very tiring. I just want to not have to think about it some days. So, I would say it’s, it’s probably in my top three [most important parts of my identity] – parent, Black, queer nonbinary.” – Nonbinary person, mid-40s

“I live in a town with a large queer and trans population and I don’t have to think about my gender most of the time other than having to come out as trans. But I’m poor and that colors everything. It’s not a chosen part of my identity but that part of my identity is a lot more influential than my gender.” – Trans man, early 40s

“My gender is very important to my identity because I feel that they go hand in hand. Now my identity is also broken down into other factors [like] character, personality and other stuff that make up the recipe for my identity. But my gender plays a big part of it. … It is important because it’s how I live my life every day. When I wake up in the morning, I do things as a woman.” – Trans woman, mid-40s

“I feel more strongly connected to my other identities outside of my gender, and I feel like parts of it’s just a more universal thing, like there’s a lot more people in my socioeconomic class and we have much more shared experiences.” – Trans man, late 30s

Some participants spoke about how their gender interacted with other aspects of their identity, such as their race, culture and religion. For some, being transgender or nonbinary can be at odds with other parts of their identity or background. 

“Culturally I’m Dominican and Puerto Rican, a little bit of the macho machismo culture, in my family, and even now, if I’m going to be a man, I’ve got to be a certain type of man. So, I cannot just be who I’m meant to be or who I want myself to be, the human being that I am.” – Trans man, mid-30s

“[Judaism] is a very binary religion. There is a lot of things like for men to do and a lot of things for women to do. … So, it is hard for me now as a gender queer person, right, to connect on some levels with [my] religion … I have just now been exposed to a bunch of trans Jewish spaces online which is amazing.” – Nonbinary person, mid-40s

“Just being Indian American, I identify and love aspects of my culture and ethnicity, and I find them amazing and I identify with that, but it’s kind of separated. So, I identify with the culture, then I identify here in terms of gender and being who I am, but I kind of feel the necessity to separate the two, unfortunately.” – Nonbinary person, mid-30s

“I think it’s really me being a Black woman or a Black man that can sometimes be difficult. And also, my ethnic background too. It’s really rough for me with my family back home and things of that nature.” – Nonbinary person, mid-20s

Navigating gender day-to-day

For some, deciding how open to be about their gender identity can be a constant calculation. Some participants reported that they choose whether or not to disclose that they are trans or nonbinary in a given situation based on how safe or comfortable they feel and whether it’s necessary for other people to know. This also varies depending on whether the participant can easily pass as a cisgender man or woman (that is, they can blend in so that others assume them to be cisgender and don’t recognize that they are trans or nonbinary).

“It just depends on whether I feel like I have the energy to bring it up, or if it feels worth it to me like with doctors and stuff like that. I always bring it up with my therapists, my primary [care doctor], I feel like she would get it. I guess it does vary on the situation and my capacity level.” – Nonbinary person, late 20s

“I decide based on the person and based on the context, like if I feel comfortable enough to share that piece of myself with them, because I do have the privilege of being able to move through the world and be identified as cis[gender] if I want to. But then it is important to me – if you’re important to me, then you will know who I am and how I identify. Otherwise, if I don’t feel comfortable or safe then I might not.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“The expression of my gender doesn’t vary. Who I let in to know that I was formerly female – or formerly perceived as female – is kind of on a need to know basis.” – Trans man, 60s

“It’s important to me that people not see me as cis[gender], so I have to come out a lot when I’m around new people, and sometimes that’s challenging. … It’s not information that comes out in a normal conversation. You have to force it and that’s difficult sometimes.” – Trans man, early 40s

Work is one realm where many participants said they choose not to share that they are trans or nonbinary. In some cases, this is because they want to be recognized for their work rather than the fact that they are trans or nonbinary; in others, especially for nonbinary participants, they fear it will be perceived as unprofessional.

“It’s gotten a lot better recently, but I feel like when you’re nonbinary and you use they/them pronouns, it’s just seen as really unprofessional and has been for a lot of my life.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“Whether it’s LinkedIn or profiles [that] have been updated, I’ve noticed people’s resumes have their pronouns now. I don’t go that far because I just feel like it’s a professional environment, it’s nobody’s business.” – Nonbinary person, mid-30s

“I don’t necessarily volunteer the information just to make it public; I want to be recognized for my character, my skill set, in my work in other ways.” – Trans man, early 30s

Some focus group participants said they don’t mind answering questions about what it’s like to be trans or nonbinary but were wary of being seen as the token trans or nonbinary person in their workplace or among acquaintances. Whether or not they are comfortable answering these types of questions sometimes depends on who’s asking, why they want to know, and how personal the questions get.

“I’ve talked to [my cousin about being trans] a lot because she has a daughter, and her daughter wants to transition. So, she always will come to me asking questions.” – Trans woman, early 40s

“It is tough being considered the only resource for these topics, right? In my job, I would hate to call myself the token nonbinary, but I was the first nonbinary person that they hired and they were like, ‘Oh, my gosh, let me ask you all the questions as you are obviously the authority on the subject.’ And it is like, ‘No, that is a part of me, but there are so many other great resources.’” – Nonbinary person, late 20s

“I don’t want to be the token. I’m not going to be no spokesperson. If you have questions, I’m the first person you can ask. Absolutely. I don’t mind discussing. Ask me some of the hardest questions, because if you ask somebody else you might get you know your clock cleaned. So, ask me now … so you can be educated properly. Otherwise, I don’t believe it’s anybody’s business.” – Trans woman, early 40s

Most nonbinary participants said they use “they/them” as their pronouns, but some prefer alternatives. These alternatives include a combination of gendered and gender-neutral pronouns (like she/they) or simply preferring that others use one’s names rather than pronouns. 

“If I could, I would just say my name is my pronoun, which I do in some spaces, but it just is not like a larger view. It feels like I’d rather have less labor on me in that regard, so I just say they/them.” – Nonbinary person, late 20s

“For me personally, I don’t get mad if someone calls me ‘he’ because I see what they’re looking at. They look and they see a guy. So, I don’t get upset. I know a few people who do … and they correct you. Me, I’m a little more fluid. So, that’s how it works for me.” – Nonbinary person, mid-30s

“I use they/she pronouns and I put ‘they’ first because that is what I think is most comfortable and it’s what I want to draw people’s attention to, because I’m 5 feet tall and 100 pounds so it’s not like I scream masculine at first sight, so I like putting ‘they’ first because otherwise people always default to ‘she.’ But I have ‘she’ in there, and I don’t know if I’d have ‘she’ in there if I had not had kids.” – Nonbinary person, late 30s

“Why is it so hard for people to think of me as nonbinary? I choose not to use only they/them pronouns because I do sometimes identify with ‘she.’ But I’m like, ‘Do I need to use they/them pronouns to be respected as nonbinary?’ Sometimes I feel like I should do that. But I don’t want to feel like I should do anything. I just want to be myself and have that be accepted and respected.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“I have a lot of patience for people, but [once someone in public used] they/them pronouns and I thanked them and they were like, ‘Yeah, I just figure I’d do it when I don’t know [someone’s] pronouns.’ And I’m like, ‘I love it, thank you.’” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

Transgender and nonbinary participants find affirmation of their gender identity and support in various places. Many cited their friends, chosen families (and, less commonly, their relatives), therapists or other health care providers, religion, or LGBTQ+ spaces as sources of support.

“I’m just not close with my family [of origin], but I have a huge chosen family that I love and that fully respects my identity.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“Before the pandemic I used to go out to bars a lot; there’s a queer bar in my town and it was a really nice place just being friends with everybody who went and everybody who worked there, it felt really nice you know, and just hearing everybody use the right pronouns for me it just felt really good.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“I don’t necessarily go to a lot of dedicated support groups, but I found that there’s kind of a good amount of support in areas or groups or fandoms for things that have a large LGBT population within them. Like certain shows or video games, where it’s just kind of a joke that all the gay people flock to this.”  – Trans woman, late teens

“Being able to practice my religion in a location with a congregation that is just completely chill about it, or so far has been completely chill about it, has been really amazing.” – Nonbinary person, late 30s

Many participants shared specific moments they said were small in the grand scheme of things but made them feel accepted and affirmed. Examples included going on dates, gestures of acceptance by a friend or social group, or simply participating in everyday activities.

“I went on a date with a really good-looking, handsome guy. And he didn’t know that I was trans. But I told him, and we kept talking and hanging out. … That’s not the first time that I felt affirmed or felt like somebody is treating me as I present myself. But … he made me feel wanted and beautiful.” – Trans woman, late 30s

“I play [on a men’s rec league] hockey [team]. … I joined the league like right when I first transitioned and I showed up and I was … nervous with locker rooms and stuff, and they just accepted me as male right away.” – Trans man, late 30s

“I ended up going into a barbershop. … The barber was very welcoming, and talked to me as if I was just a casual customer and there was something that clicked within that moment where, figuring out my gender identity, I just wanted to exist in the world to do these natural things like other boys and men would do. So, there was just something exciting about that. It wasn’t a super macho masculine moment, … he just made me feel like I blended in.” – Trans man, early 30s

Participants also talked about negative experiences, such as being misgendered, either intentionally or unintentionally. For example, some shared instances where they were treated or addressed as a gender other than the gender that they identify as, such as people referring to them as “he” when they go by “she,” or where they were deadnamed, meaning they were called by the name they had before they transitioned. 

“I get misgendered on the phone a lot and that’s really annoying. And then, even after I correct them, they keep doing it, sometimes on purpose and sometimes I think they’re just reading a script or something.” – Trans man, late 30s

“The times that I have been out, presenting femme, there is this very subconscious misgendering that people do and it can be very frustrating. [Once, at a restaurant,] I was dressed in makeup and nails and shoes and everything and still everyone was like, ‘Sir, what would you like?’ … Those little things – those microaggressions – they can really eat away at people.” – Nonbinary person, mid-40s

“People not calling me by the right name. My family is a big problem, they just won’t call me by my name, you know? Except for my nephew, who is of the Millennial generation, so at least he gets it.” – Nonbinary person, 60s

“I’m constantly misgendered when I go out places. I accept this – because of the way I look, people are going to perceive me as a woman and it doesn’t cause me huge dysphoria or anything, it’s just nice that the company that I keep does use the right pronouns.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

Some participants also shared stories of discrimination, bias, humiliation, and even violence. These experiences ranged from employment discrimination to being outed (that is, someone else disclosing the fact that they are transgender or nonbinary without their permission) without their permission to physical attacks.

“I was on a date with this girl and I had to use the bathroom … and the janitor … wouldn’t let me use the men’s room, and he kept refusing to let me use the men’s room, so essentially, I ended up having to use the same bathroom as my date.” – Trans man, late 30s

“I’ve been denied employment due to my gender identity. I walked into a supermarket looking for jobs. … And they flat out didn’t let me apply. They didn’t even let me apply.” – Trans man, mid-30s

“[In high school,] this group of guys said, ‘[name] is gay.’ I ignored them but they literally threw me and tore my shirt from my back and pushed me to the ground and tried to strip me naked. And I had to fight for myself and use my bag to hit him in the face.” – Trans woman, late 20s

“I took a college course [after] I had my name changed legally and the instructor called me out in front of the class and called me a liar and outed me.” – Trans man, late 30s 

Seeking medical care for gender transitions 

Many, but not all, participants said they have received  medical care , such as surgery or hormone therapy, as part of their gender transition. For those who haven’t undergone a medical transition, the reasons ranged from financial barriers to being nervous about medical procedures in general to simply not feeling that it was the right thing for them.

“For me to really to live my truth and live my identity, I had to have the surgery, which is why I went through it. It doesn’t mean [that others] have to, or that it will make you more or less of a woman because you have it. But for me to be comfortable, … that was a big part of it. And so, that’s why I felt I had to get it.” – Trans woman, early 40s

“I’m older and it’s an operation. … I’m just kind of scared, I guess. I’ve never had an operation. I mean, like any kind of operation. I’ve never been to the hospital or anything like that. So, it [is] just kind of scary. But I mean, I want to. I think about all the time. I guess have got to get the courage up to do it.” – Trans woman, early 40s

“I’ve decided that the dysphoria of a second puberty … would just be too much for me and I’m gender fluid enough where I’m happy, I guess.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“I’m too old to change anything, I mean I am what I am. [laughs]” – Nonbinary person, 60s

Many focus group participants who have sought medical treatment for their gender transition faced barriers, although some had positive experiences. For those who said there were barriers, the cost and the struggle to find sympathetic doctors were often cited as challenges. 

“I was flat out turned down by the primary care physician who had to give the go-ahead to give me a referral to an endocrinologist; I was just shut down. That was it, end of story.” – Nonbinary person, 50s

“I have not had surgery, because I can’t access surgery. So unless I get breast cancer and have a double mastectomy, surgery is just not going to happen … because my health insurance wouldn’t cover something like that. … It would be an out-of-pocket plastic surgery expense and I can’t afford that at this time.” – Nonbinary person, 50s

“Why do I need the permission of a therapist to say, ‘This person’s identity is valid,’ before I can get the health care that I need to be me, that is vital for myself and for my way of life?” – Nonbinary person, mid-40s

“[My doctor] is basically the first person that actually embraced me and made me accept [who I am].” – Trans woman, late 20s

Many people who transitioned in previous decades described how access has gotten much easier in recent years. Some described relying on underground networks to learn which doctors would help them obtain medical care or where to obtain hormones illegally. 

“It was hard financially because I started so long ago, just didn’t have access like that. Sometimes you have to try to go to Mexico or learn about someone in Mexico that was a pharmacist, I can remember that. That was a big thing, going through the border to Mexico, that was wild. So, it was just hard financially because they would charge so much for testosterone. And there was the whole bodybuilding community. If you were transitioning, you went to bodybuilders, and they would charge you five times what they got it [for], so it was kind of tough.” – Trans man, early 40s

“It was a lot harder to get a surgeon when I started transitioning; insurance was out of the question, there wasn’t really a national discussion around trans people and their particular medical needs. So, it was challenging having to pay everything out of pocket at a young age.” – Trans man, early 30s

“I guess it was hard for me to access hormones initially just because you had to jump through so many hoops, get letters, and then you had to find a provider that was willing to write it. And now it’s like people are getting it from their primary care doctor, which is great, but a very different experience than I had.” – Trans man, early 40s

Connections with the broader LGBTQ+ community

The discussions also touched on whether the participants feel a connection with a broader lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community or with other people who are LGBTQ+. Views varied, with some saying they feel an immediate connection with other people who are LGBTQ+, even with those who aren’t trans or nonbinary, and others saying they don’t necessarily feel this way. 

“It’s kind of a recurring joke where you can meet another LGBT person and it is like there is an immediate understanding, and you are basically talking and giving each other emotional support, like you have been friends for 10-plus years.” – Trans woman, late teens 

“I don’t think it’s automatic friendship between queer people, there’s like a kinship, but I don’t think there’s automatic friendship or anything. I think it’s just normal, like, how normal people make friends, just based on common interests.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s 

“I do think of myself as part of the LGBT [community] … I use the resources that are put in place for these communities, whether that’s different health care programs, support groups, they have the community centers. … So, I do consider myself to be part of this community, and I’m able to hopefully take when needed, as well as give back.” – Trans man, mid-30s

“I feel like that’s such an important part of being a part of the [LGBTQ+] alphabet soup community, that process of constantly learning and listening to each other and … growing and developing language together … I love that aspect of creating who we are together, learning and unlearning together, and I feel like that’s a part of at least the queer community spaces that I want to be in. That’s something that’s core to me.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“I identify as queer. I feel like I’m a part of the LGBT community. That’s more of a part of my identity than being trans. … Before I came out as trans, I identified as a lesbian. That was also a big part of my identity. So, that may be too why I feel like I’m more part of the LGB community.” – Trans man, early 40s

While many trans and nonbinary participants said they felt accepted by others in the LGBTQ+ community, some participants described their gender identity as a barrier to full acceptance. There was a sense among some participants that cisgender people who are lesbian, gay or bisexual don’t always accept people who are transgender or nonbinary.  

“I would really like to be included in the [LGBTQ+] community. But I have seen some people try to separate the T from LGB … I’ve run into a few situations throughout my time navigating the [LGBTQ+] community where I’ve been perceived – and I just want to say that there’s nothing wrong with this – I’ve been perceived as like a more feminine or gay man in a social setting, even though I’m heterosexual. … But the minute that that person found out that I wasn’t a gay man … and that I was actually a transgender person, they became cold and just distancing themselves. And I’ve been in a lot of those types of circumstances where there’s that divide between the rest of the community.” – Trans man, early 30s

“There are some lesbians who see trans men as being traitors to womanhood. Those are not people that I really identify with or want to be close to.” – Trans man, early 40s 

“It’s only in the past maybe dozen or so years, that an identity like gender fluid or gender queer was acceptable even within the LGBTQ+ community. … I tried to go to certain LGBTQ+ events as a trans man and, you know, I was not allowed in because I looked too female. The gay men would not allow me to participate.” – Nonbinary person, 50s 

“Technically based on the letters [in the acronym LGBTQ+] I am part of that community, but I’ve felt discrimination, it’s very heavily exclusive to people who are either gay or lesbian and I think that’s true … for queer or bisexual or asexual, intersex … anybody who’s not like exclusively hardcore gay or lesbian. It’s very exclusive, like excluding to those people. … I feel like the BTQ is a separate group of people…. So, I identify with the second half of the letters as a separate subset.” – Trans man, late 30s

Policy and social change

When asked to name the most important policy or political issues facing transgender and nonbinary people in the United States today, many participants named basic needs such as housing, employment, and health care. Others cited recent legislation or policies related to people who are transgender that have made national news.

“Housing is a huge issue. Health care might be good in New York, it might be good in California, but … it’s not a national equality for trans folks. Health care is not equal across the states. Housing is not equal across the states. So, I think that the issues right now that we’re all facing is health care and housing. That’s the top, the most important things.” – Trans woman, early 40s 

“Definitely education. I think that’s very important … Whether you identify as trans or not as a young child, it’s good to understand and know the different things under the umbrella, the queer umbrella. And it is also just a respect thing. And also, the violence that happens against trans and nonbinary people. I feel like educating them very young, that kind of helps – well, it is going to help because once you understand what’s going on and you see somebody that doesn’t identify the same as you, you’ll have that respect, or you’ll have that understanding and you’re less likely to be very violent towards them.” – Nonbinary person, mid-20s 

“Employment is a big one. And I know that some areas, more metropolitan progressive-leaning areas, are really on top of this, but they’re trans people everywhere that are still being discriminated against. I think it’s a personal thing for me that goes back to my military service, but still, it’s just unfortunate. It’s an unfortunate reality.” – Trans man, early 30s

“I think just the strong intersectionality of trans people with mental health issues, or even physical health issues. … So in that way, accessing good health care or having good mental health.” – Trans man, late 30s

“I honestly think that the situation in Texas is the most pressing political and policy situation because it is a direct attack on the trans community. … And it is so insidious because it doesn’t just target bathrooms. This is saying that if you provide medical care to trans youth it is tantamount to child abuse. And it is so enraging because it is a known proven fact that access to gender affirming medical care saves lives. It saves the lives of trans youth. And trans youth have the highest suicide rate in the country.” – Nonbinary person, mid-40s 

Participants had different takes on what gets in the way of progress on issues facing transgender and nonbinary people. Some pointed to the lack of knowledge surrounding the history of these issues or not knowing someone who is transgender or nonbinary. Others mentioned misconceptions people might have about transgender and nonbinary people that influence their political and policy perspectives. 

“People who don’t know trans people, honestly … that’s the only barrier I can understand because people fear what they don’t know and then react to it a lot of the time.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“Sometimes even if they know someone, they still don’t consider them to be a human being, they are an ‘other,’ they are an ‘it,’ they are a ‘not like me,’ ‘not like my family,’ person and so they are put into a place socially where they can be treated badly.” – Nonbinary person, 50s

“Just the ignorance and misinformation and this quick fake social media fodder, where it encourages people who should not be part of the conversation to spread things that are not true.” – Trans man, late 30s

“Also, the political issues that face nonbinary people, it’s that people think nonbinary is some made-up thing to feel cool. It’s not to feel cool. And if someone does do it to feel cool, maybe they’re just doing that because they don’t feel comfortable within themselves.” – Nonbinary person, mid-30s

“There’s so much fear around it, and misunderstanding, and people thinking that if you’re talking to kids about gender and sexuality, that it’s sexual. And it’s like, we really need to break down that our bodies are not inherently sexual. We need to be able to talk with students and children about their bodies so that they can then feel empowered to understand themselves, advocate for themselves.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

When asked what makes them hopeful for the future for trans and nonbinary people, some participants pointed to the way things in society have already changed and progress that has been made. For example, some mentioned greater representation and visibility of transgender and nonbinary people in entertainment and other industries, while others focused on changing societal views as things that give them hope for the future. 

“I am hopeful about the future because I see so many of us coming out and being visible and representing and showing folks that we are not to stereotype.” – Trans woman, early 40s

“Also, even though celebrity is annoying, it’s still cool when people like Willow [Smith] or Billie Eilish or all these popstars that the kids really love are like, ‘I’m nonbinary, I’m queer,’ like a lot more progressive. … Even just more visibility in TV shows and movies, the more and more that happens the more it’s like, ‘Oh yeah, we are really here, you can’t not see us.’” – Nonbinary person, late 20s

“We shouldn’t have to look to the entertainment industry for role models, we shouldn’t have to, we should be able to look to our leaders, our political leaders, but I think, that’s what gives me hope. Soon, it’s going to become a nonissue, maybe in my lifetime.” – Trans man, 60s

“I have gotten a little bit into stand-up comedy in the last few weeks, and it is like the jokes that people made ten years ago are resurfacing online and people are enraged about it. They are saying like, ‘Oh, this is totally inappropriate.’ But that comes with the recognition that things have changed, and language has changed, and people are becoming more intolerant of allowing these things to occur. So that is why I am hopeful, is being able to see that progression and hopeful continued improvement on that front.” – Nonbinary person, late 20s

“I think because of the shift of what’s happening, how everything has become so normal, and people are being more open, and within the umbrella of queerness so many different things are happening, I think as we get more comfortable and we progress as a society, it’s just going to be better. So, people don’t have to hide who they are. So, that gives me hope.” – Nonbinary person, mid-20s

For many, young people are a source of hope. Several participants talked about younger generations being more accepting of those who are transgender or nonbinary and also being more accepted by their families if they themselves are trans or nonbinary. 

“And then the other portion that gives me hope are the kids, because I work now with so many kids who are coming out as trans earlier and their families are embracing them and everything. … So I really am trusting in the young generation.” – Nonbinary person, 60s

“I mean kids don’t judge you the same way as adults do about gender, and they’re so expansive and have so much creativity. … So it’s just the kids, Gen Z, and it just makes me feel really, really hopeful.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“The youth, the youth. They understand almost intrinsically so much more about these things than I feel like my generation did. They give me so much hope for the future.” – Nonbinary person, early 30s

“I think future generations, just seeing this growing amount of support that they have, that it’s just going to keep improving … there’s an increase in visibility but there’s also an increase in support … like resources for parents where they can see that they don’t have to punish their kids. Their kids can grow up feeling like, ‘This is okay to be this way.’ And I feel like that’s not something that can be stopped.” – Trans man, late 30s

Additional materials

• Acknowledgments
• Methodology

Lead photo: (Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images)

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Essays on Transgender

Brief description of transgender.

Transgender refers to individuals whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. It is a crucial and often misunderstood aspect of human diversity, and writing essays on transgender topics can help increase understanding and awareness of this community.

Importance of Writing Essays on This ... Read More Brief Description of Transgender

Importance of writing essays on this topic.

Essays on transgender topics are important for both academic and personal exploration. They can help challenge societal norms, promote empathy and understanding, and contribute to the ongoing conversation about gender identity and equality.

Tips on Choosing a Good Topic

• Consider current issues and controversies within the transgender community, such as access to healthcare or discrimination in the workplace.
• Explore personal narratives and experiences of transgender individuals to gain insight into their lived experiences.
• Research the history and cultural significance of transgender identities in different societies and time periods.

Essay Topics

• Argumentative Essay: The impact of transgender-inclusive policies in schools and workplaces.
• Reflective Essay: My journey of understanding and supporting transgender rights.
• Expository Essay: Exploring the history of transgender representation in media and popular culture.
• Research Essay: The mental health challenges faced by transgender individuals and the need for better support systems.
• Persuasive Essay: The importance of transgender representation in politics and leadership roles.
• Comparison Essay: Contrasting the experiences of transgender individuals in different countries or regions.
• Cause and Effect Essay: The consequences of societal discrimination on the mental health of transgender youth.
• Definition Essay: Defining the spectrum of gender identity beyond the binary understanding of male and female.
• Narrative Essay: Sharing the personal story of a transgender individual navigating their identity and relationships.
• Analytical Essay: Examining the portrayal of transgender characters in literature and film.

Concluding Thought

Writing essays on transgender topics can be a powerful way to engage with and understand the complexities of gender identity. By exploring these issues through writing, we can contribute to a more inclusive and empathetic society.

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Transgender Children: From Controversy to Dialogue

Jordan osserman.

a Department of Psychosocial Studies, Birkbeck, University of London

Hannah Wallerstein

b Austen Riggs Center

This paper introduces the topic and unique format of the section that follows, on psychoanalytic work with transgender children. We first review the apparent impasse that characterizes our field regarding clinical work with gender diverse kids, as well as the reasons we pursued a live dialog to push thinking forward. Then, we outline the structure of the entire section, in which four contributors offer short essays, followed by a transcribed and edited version of the dialog we facilitated, which uses these essays as a starting point. We conclude with reflections on some of the themes that arise in the dialog, and implications for all of us who work in the arena of gender and young people.

Seven years ago, this journal published a special section entitled Transgender Children: Conundrums and Controversies . Psychoanalytic clinicians were invited to address the question of children who identify with a gender different from their sex assigned at birth. There was a particular focus on the increasing availability of medical interventions for such children, such as the medical suspension of puberty, to “buy time” for further exploration and potential gender transition before an unwanted natal puberty sets in.

At the time of publication, transgender children were already a subject of fierce debate within and outside the psychoanalytic community. One might have hoped that attempts such as this journal’s previous special section to bring differing clinical perspectives together may have produced some degree of consensus within the field of psychoanalysis. On the contrary, just as society has become even more polarized around the subject of “trans,” and trans kids, so too the conjunction of “psychoanalysis,” “trans,” and “children,” seems to have reached an impasse.

Consider the following recent, pertinent example: In December 2020, the United Kingdom’s High Court of Justice (2020 ) made international headlines with its ruling on Bell v Tavistock . The case concerned the question of whether young people were sufficiently competent to consent to taking puberty blockers as a treatment for gender dysphoria. In a decision that challenged the current mainstream medical standards for transgender care, which support the use of such drugs in cases of severe and persistent gender dysphoria ( WPATH 2012 ), the court ruled that the possibility of such consent was “highly unlikely” for children under the age of 16 years. This led the UK’s only public clinic for gender-related care – the Gender Identity Development Service (GIDS), part of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust – to immediately halt the process for under 16 year olds to begin puberty suppression treatment. The full implications of the ruling remain uncertain, with a subsequent ruling enabling parents to consent to puberty blockers on behalf of their children, and an appeal to Bell v Tavistock underway (see GIDS 2021 ; Middleton 2021 ). 1

The key complainant in the case was Keisha Bell, who began transitioning to male at the age of 16, came to regret this choice, and subsequently de-transitioned, now identifying as female. 2 Among those who publicly championed Keisha Bell’s case was psychiatrist and psychoanalyst David Bell (no familial relation), past president of the British Psychoanalytical Society and recently retired staff governor of the Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. David Bell became known to the wider public after he wrote a highly critical report of GIDS that was leaked to the press, based on confidential conversations he held with a number of concerned staff in the service ( Cooke 2021 ; Doward 2018 ). He has since become a prominent spokesperson, alongside other psychoanalysts, psychodynamic therapists, and “gender critical” activists, against mainstream approaches for children who wish to undergo gender transition (see Brunskell-Evans and Moore 2018 , 2019 ). In their view, the field of mental health is failing young people and their families by too readily offering “affirmative” pharmacological solutions, foreclosing alternative outcomes that would be made possible through longer lasting, better resourced, and more exploratory talking therapies that retain explicit distance from views articulated by advocates for trans rights. “Gender services tend toward a damaging simplification,” writes Bell, partly because “most do not regard themselves as psychoanalytic services, and in some major services it is a small minority who have any substantial psychotherapeutic experience” ( Bell 2020 , 1032– 1033).

David Bell’s work has been especially focused on under-addressed social factors he believes contribute to the current rise in referrals for gender dysphoria, particularly among natal females, including an internalization of societal misogyny, the treatment of patients as consumers, and the influence of social media ( Bell 2020 ). In a similar vein, in a public resignation letter following Bell’s report, Marcus Evans, a longstanding Tavistock governor and psychoanalyst, criticized “faddish” notions of “innate gender identity” which, he argued, prevents clinicians at GIDS and elsewhere from interrogating the meanings encoded in gender ( Evans 2020 ). Bell, Evans, and other gender critical psychotherapists share the view that problems of identity require symbolic working through, and that interventions into the reality of the body are often mistaken, potentially psychotic solutions ( Brunskell-Evans and Moore 2019 ).

While these statements may suggest that psychoanalysis is consolidating a position on trans kids and how to care for them, we are also witnessing a growth of psychoanalytic literature that supports young people’s access to gender related medical interventions, and is alert to the countertransferential reactions that subtend analysts’ anxieties around the subject ( Farley and Kennedy 2020 ; Gozlan 2018 ; Saketopoulou 2020 ; Wiggins 2020 ). “Some psychic conflicts cannot be resolved in the psychic realm, requiring action,” writes Avgi Sakteopoulou in a recent debate with David Bell (2020 , 1025). She has coined the concept “massive gender trauma” ( 2014 ) to describe the consequences that can attend to a child’s experience of misrecognition in the face of gender dysphoria. Here, it should be remembered that Diane Ehrensaft, a founder of the “gender affirmative” approach to care, whose contribution framed the debate of the previous Conundrums and Controversies section, is herself psychoanalytically trained, and draws on Winnicott in her coinage of the term “True Gender Self” ( Ehrensaft 2015 , 2009 , 2021 ). Ehrensaft argues that the “gender affirmative” model is “particularly suited to psychoanalytic child therapy, where through listening, playing, mirroring, observing, relating, and interpreting, we strive to get to the heart of the gender matter” ( 2021 , 77). As Saketopoulou has underlined ( 2020 ), this literature is often in conversation with other fields such as feminist, queer and trans studies, and foregrounds trans people’s own testimonies as an important point of reference (see especially Rose 2016 ).

Interestingly, much of this more trans-affirmative psychoanalytic work has been produced on North American soil, perhaps reflective of a divide between American psychoanalysts’ eagerness to accommodate progressive societal developments, and a British tradition that, with its emphasis on internal object relations, is more cautious regarding the complex symbolic processes that underlie seemingly liberatory external changes (see Bonfatto and Crasnow 2018 ; Lemma 2013 , 2016 , 2018 ). Alessandra Lemma, for example, while supportive of young people’s access to medical transition, cautions more enthusiastic advocates that “it remains our ethical responsibility to help our patients to also consider that even so-called creative acts come at significant costs and have multi-layered meanings that are not immediately accessible to our consciousness and that this requires processing (i.e. time) in order to make informed choices” ( Lemma 2018 , 1101).

That the UK controversy concerns a gender clinic located within the Tavistock, a psychodynamically oriented public mental health institution, is also noteworthy. Indeed GIDS has been contending with the tensions that characterize our field regarding the treatment of trans children since its inception in 1989. Founder and former director Domenico Di Ceglie was psychoanalytically trained and oriented the clinic around a Kleinian model of what he calls “atypical gender identity organization” ( 2018 ). This model holds open the possibility both that a transgender life is a liveable one and, when appropriate, ought to be medically facilitated; but also, that non-normative gender expression may communicate something other than a wish for transition. Currently GIDS’s multidisciplinary staff have diverse conceptualizations of gender identity, and often draw from contemporary psychiatric and psychological research, rather than psychoanalytic discourses ( Costa, Carmichael, and Colizzi 2016 ); however, Di Ceglie’s psychodynamic approach continues to inform the literature clinicians at the service publish about their work ( Bonfatto and Crasnow 2018 ; Wren 2014 ). In addition to allegations such as David Bell’s that GIDS does not allow enough time for exploratory work, the service has also been criticized for being too cautious in its approach to medical intervention, emphasizing the importance of exploration and waiting at the expense of patients in need ( Green 2008 ). GIDS clinicians write about the need to hold on to complexity and curiosity amidst the intense pressures they experience from all sides, and the need to consider their interventions in relation to other systems and cultural contexts more generally ( Bonfatto and Crasnow 2018 ; Wren 2019 ). “Practising ethically in such a service is not helpfully reduced to a single event, a treatment decision aimed at achieving the morally ‘right’ outcome,” writes GIDS’s former Consultant Psychologist Bernadette Wren (2019 , 203), “but an extended process in time.”

Thus it is apparent that, contrary to a simple division between “gender affirmative” and “gender critical” camps, psychodynamically oriented clinicians exhibit a range of views on whether, when, and in what form children ought to be supported in physical and social gender transition (see Lament 2014 for a helpful overview). A recent intervention in the Lacanian field by Jacques Allain Miller (2021 ) sounded a particularly ambiguous note, at once accusing trans activists of making bad faith critiques of his school’s alleged transphobia, and of his own followers failing to listen to trans people in the particular way Freud listened to his hysteric patients.

This combination of extreme political polarization, alongside a range of sometimes incompatible clinical perspectives, can be bewildering to the contemporary clinician hoping to work effectively and ethically in this arena. It can create a destabilizing sensation of stuck-ness. In a way, the popular anxieties accompanying the prescription of puberty blockers – of children being placed in suspended time – reproduce themselves via the “trans debate” itself seeming suspended in time. Against this, psychoanalysis emerges as a discipline uniquely attuned to the ethical imperative to stay with a problem whose solution is not readily forthcoming (see Baraitser 2017). “As psychoanalysts,” writes Roger Litten in his “Introduction to a Conversation on the Trans Question” ( 2021 ), “we cannot afford to remain silent, to remain shut off from these questions as if they were no concern of ours … We either find ways to address this new configuration seriously, with all the attention it deserves … or we face up to the prospect of the disappearance of psychoanalysis as a viable clinical discourse.”

While statistical medicine has responded to anxieties surrounding gender in young people by attempting to predict which children are likely to “persist” versus “desist” in a trans identity – to diagnose whether a child is “really” trans, through behavioral criteria based on numerical averages (see Steensma et al. 2013 ; Temple Newhook et al. 2018 ) – this special section, functioning as “part II” of the original 2014 section on transgender children, is based on a wager that something different is required from our field. Namely, that we cannot sidestep the fact that every instance of childhood gender dysphoria involves a person with a unique subjectivity and emotional and relational life; and therefore, we cannot produce a “rulebook” for how to work in this arena, but rather must rely on the imperfect art of “thinking in cases” ( Forrester 2017 ), over time and in dialogue. Indeed, if one thing might be identified in common across current psychodynamic perspectives – as we will see in the contributions that follow – it is a concern for allowing an individual’s suffering to be heard in its specificity, so that an adequate solution can be molded out of the impasses that we all face in relation to questions of sex and being.

Contributors and format

Thus, without putting excessive faith in psychoanalysis’s ability to resolve larger social antagonisms, we both felt that psychoanalytic writers and practitioners could think collaboratively about how to bring to bear their unique attention to questions of desire, relationality, and the unconscious, onto the clinical situation of young people navigating the deeply personal, yet also universal challenge of gendered selfhood. While the previous special section began to explore this question, it was limited to individual contributors responding in written form. In contrast, we believe that a live exchange, where clinical and theoretical standpoints and differences can be hashed out in real time, holds open the possibility to move the conversation forward, perhaps alleviating the sense of “stuckness” and producing some shared coordinates from which a psychoanalytic way of working with trans and gender questioning children might proceed. Not unlike a clinical encounter, a live exchange requires participants to think on their feet, challenging the easy comforts of maintaining one’s pre-articulated perspective, and, we hope, enabling genuinely new insights to co-constructively emerge.

To this end, we developed the following structure: four clinicians and scholars who have written about trans issues from a generally psychoanalytic frame were asked to compose short, condensed pieces, stating what mattered most to them about clinical work with trans children and adolescents, as springboards for a live discussion. We offered a series of possible prompts, underlining a variety of areas that seem to us to require further thought. Our hope in giving contributors wide reach but limited space was to facilitate distilled thinking about the aspects of clinical work with trans children most salient to each contributor. We then circulated the pieces and used them to ground a 2–3 hour dialog we facilitated over Zoom, which was then transcribed, and is here published in edited form along with the preliminary short essays.

In selecting contributors, we prioritized having trans studies and child-developmental perspectives represented, alongside a generally psychoanalytic frame, as we believe all three orientations bring important insights to work with gender diverse children. 3 These frameworks are not always compatible, and we were particularly interested in finding a way to speak across their differences. Additionally, we felt it was important to include those with direct experience of trans identity, in order to bring a first-hand perspective that could help articulate and identify concerns that non-trans contributors might overlook (on ethical research concerning members of oppressed groups, see Charlton 1998 ; Vincent 2018 ).

It is worth noting that in our search for contributors, we came across several scholars and clinicians who felt unable to participate, either due to their perception of the views of others we had asked, or due to their sense of vulnerability in their professional lives. This we think reflects the level of polarization, and the real barriers to speaking across differences in the field right now. We had especially hoped to find a UK participant working in the NHS with trans kids, but were ultimately unsuccessful, due both to the tense political situation that has placed clinicians under heightened scrutiny, as well as the workload strain brought on by chronic underfunding of gender-related healthcare. We are thus all the more grateful for and impressed by the courage of the contributors to this section, for their willingness to engage despite the risks and demands on their time.

The contributors are as follows: Dr. Oren Gozlan is a clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Toronto. He is chair of the Gender and Sexuality Committee of the International Forum for Psychoanalytic Education, and has written extensively on the topic of transgender. His book “Transexuality and the Art of Transitioning: A Lacanian Approach” won the American Academy and Board of Psychoanalysis’ book prize. His most recent article addresses fantasies surrounding the treatment of trans children. Gozlan’s short essay for this volume continues his exploration of countertransferential dynamics at play in adult concerns for trans children, with a particular focus on anxieties about change and regret.

Dr. Laurel Silber is a child analyst in private practice in Philadelphia. She is past president of the Philadelphia Society for Psychoanalytic Psychology and Philadelphia Center for Psychoanalytic Education, adjunct faculty at Widener’s Institute of Graduate Clinical Psychology and faculty at the Institute of Relational Psychoanalysis of Philadelphia. She is a long-time advocate for child therapy and has written on childism, the intergenerational transmission of trauma, and more recently on gender expression and variance in children. Silber makes her own plea in this volume for attending to adult anxieties that may cloud the work with trans and gender variant children, reading these anxieties in the seeming lack of concern, or hasty support for action, that forecloses the space for play and curiosity.

Dr. Eve Watson is a psychoanalyst and university lecturer in Dublin, Ireland. She specializes in sexuality studies, and is currently course director of the Freud Lacan Institute as well as editor of Lacunaue, the APPI International Journal for Lacanian Psychoanalysis. Watson has published extensively on psychoanalysis, sexuality, and film. She is coauthor of Clinical Encounters in Sexuality: Psychoanalytic Practice and Queer Theory with Dr. Noreen Giffney, and author of a book chapter on the treatment of trans children in Lacanian Psychoanalysis with Babies, Children and Adolescents . Her preliminary piece for this section focuses on the importance of approaching gender as a “query” and not an endpoint, the value of time, and the oppressive force of idealizing trends within mental health care.

Lastly, Dr. Tobias Wiggins is an assistant professor of Women’s and Gender Studies at Athabasca University. His research and writing focuses on transgender mental health, queer, and trans-visual culture, clinical transphobia, accessible community-based wellness and psychoanalysis. Wiggins coordinates the University Certificate in Counseling Women, an interdisciplinary program applying feminist theory to the practice of counseling and, among other advocacy projects, is a current member of the Alberta Trans Health Network, a collaborative group of healthcare providers, researchers, and community-based working in trans, non-binary, and Two-Spirit health in Alberta. Most recently Wiggins has written about perverse countertransference in relation to trans subjects. In this volume, he introduces Elisabeth Young–Bruehl’s notion of “childism” to read the particular position of the trans child in debates about transgender more broadly.

Present and absent perspectives

Looking at the contributions as a whole, a few characteristics stand out. First, we are very pleased to gather a relatively international group, albeit Anglo-American, and readers will notice the different contexts each contributor is speaking from. Some of the contributors, for instance, are in a position to advocate for or determine a child’s access to medical interventions, while others work separately from the medical establishment. Second, only one of our contributors, Silber, works primarily with children, as opposed to adolescents and adults. While this was partly due to contributor availability, it also highlights the dearth of contemporary child-centered analytic writing about trans experience, perhaps due to it being an especially contested arena. Finally, although we set out to include participants from a wide range of theoretical orientations, our conversation has a Lacanian emphasis (albeit not exclusively so, with Silber representing a relational perspective). We do not think this is simply a coincidence, but rather, reflective of the fact that Lacanian thought has played an outsized role in contemporary, English language psychoanalytic writing on trans (see Carlson 2010 ; Cavanagh 2016 ; Gherovici 2010 , 2017 ; Gozlan 2014 ; Osserman 2017 ; Shepherdson 2000 ).

This is a curious development (especially given the marginalization of Lacanian clinical practice within the Anglophone world) for which various explanations may be offered. Lacan has, until recently, had a stronger foothold within academia compared to other psychoanalytic theorists, and the university is also a key site for transgender politics. 4 A kind of circulation from the academy to the clinic characterizes psychoanalytic discussions of gender, and trans in particular, and Lacan becomes a seemingly inevitable companion to this itinerary. On a more theoretical level, the Lacanian emphasis on the symbolic order’s “denaturalization” of gender and sexuality – the ways that language and culture tear us away from animal instinct – has been a longtime resource for feminist, queer and trans theory that seeks to dethrone the seeming naturalness and inevitability of gender and sexual normativity ( Dean 2000 ; Mitchell 2000 ; Rose 2005 , 2016 ; Salamon 2010 ). Lacan challenges his followers to reject both biological determinism and voluntarist fantasies of unlimited possibility (as sometimes appears in more euphoric writing about gender), and this speaks to a problem at the heart of clinical work with gender diversity: how can a person’s sense of their gender appear both radically at odds with their sexual anatomy, yet also largely outside of their voluntary control or manipulation? 5

Despite this Lacanian emphasis, we believe that the problems explored within these pages are relevant to psychotherapeutic practitioners of all orientations, and are grateful to our contributors for engaging across theoretical schools in accessible language.

I’m a boy/”I a boy”

To orient readers to some of the tensions that fill the following pages, we thought to highlight a particularly charged, and also fertile, moment in our dialog, that occurs around the sharing of a clinical vignette. Silber speaks of a young child, assigned female at birth, who lost their father under tragic circumstances, and who began to repeat the phrase, “I a boy.” Silber uses this example to point to the enigmatic, relational ways that children play out questions of gender, and the need for such play to be collaboratively and creatively translated. Wiggins expresses concern for the way such narratives risk reinforcing the transphobic notion that beneath gender nonconformity lies an unresolved trauma that, if worked through, will invariably return the subject to a cisgender position.

While we will let our readers judge for themselves how this exchange plays out, here we draw attention to an interesting slippage we noticed when we revisited the exchange. While Silber quoted the child uttering the ambiguous phrase “I a boy,” Wiggins’ remarks referenced the phrase “I’m a boy.” This is not to criticize Wiggins for making a “mistake,” but rather to attend to the kind of linguistic slippage that characterizes the dialectical movement of psychoanalytic thought. For, these two phrases, which differ phonetically by the mere presence of the sound “m,” offer a world of difference in potential meaning, and speak to fundamental tensions around the subject of trans kids.

“I a boy” brings into view primary process aspects of gender: ungrammatical and enigmatic, it invokes the child’s early, tumultuous acquisition of language, and struggle to distinguish between subject and object as it negotiates its place within its relational world (or in Lacanian terms, the discourse of the Other). The gendered binary girl/boy, and its possible relations to mother/father, emerges here as an indeterminate, affective charge, in need of translation and containment.

By contrast, “I’m a boy” makes sense. It is a familiar grammatical phrase that puts the question of identity in (seemingly) clear and straightforward terms. While such a statement may still concern family relations and the enigmas of coming into language, it is also a fully formed assertion of self that articulates a boundary (I am x, not y). Where the former statement requires translation in order to be understood, here there is a choice point, regarding inquiring further or taking the self-assertion as an end point. When spoken by a child assigned female at birth, the statement calls forth a series of questions that may be more or less anxiety provoking (depending on the recipient of the message) yet that nevertheless belong to a certain framework of interpretation. Whether treated as a statement of incipient trans identity, a passing fancy, a bit of “gender creativity,” or even, for some, an indicator of pathology, the phrase participates in a social discourse whose contours are relatively well understood.

As such, the opposition “I a boy”/”I’m a boy” gives form to crucial tensions that emerge in our discussion: first, between how psychoanalysis understands the process of subject development for everyone versus how it speaks more specifically to contemporary trans discourse, and second, between the particularities of childhood and more general ways of thinking about gender experience. For instance, is identity conceptualized as something enigmatic and related to split subjecthood, or as something knowable, communicable, and able to be politicized? And should a child’s gendered statement be heard similarly to an adult’s? In which ways, and in which ways not? There are no simple answers to these questions. Often, when people speak from one side of these tensions, they can see the other side as alternately transphobic, or unable/unwilling to interrogate subjectivity outside of identarian terms. Yet we believe each side offers something vital to the conversation, as becomes apparent in the following pages. Before turning our readers over to that, we will mark three more specific areas of tension that strike us in the engagements that follow.

The dependency relationship

One glaring difference in work with children and with adults is the dependency that defines childhood. While certainly no adult is completely independent, the dependencies of childhood are pervasive, asymmetrical, and legally defined. Winnicott’s much cited comment that there is “no such thing as a baby” ( 1964 , 88) may well be expanded to the entire period of childhood, albeit to progressively lessening degrees, as ideally development moves the child from a state of total to increasingly partial dependence on others.

This has implications for the treatment of trans children, which differ from that of adults. Namely, providers and parents have a duty to protect children, to some degree, and to be more active participants in decision-making. But what, exactly, trans children need to be protected from, is a matter of contention. Our contributors take this up in different ways. Watson and Silber focus on the protection of a time for exploration, or a play space in which further elaboration can occur. Gozlan and Wiggins focus more on the protection of children from adult biases and projections that can distort listening. Additionally, in different ways, all contributors call our attention to the complicated affects and desires that can creep into a felt need to “protect the children,” raising the question of how one sorts out the difference between the misuse of a child for adult needs, and responsible caregiving that takes stock of the actual dependency relationship.

Ideas about protection are especially salient in discussions on the use of medical interventions such as puberty blockers with young adolescents. On one side of the debate, there is an argument that children should be protected from the responsibility of making decisions involving bodily intervention. Here a young or emerging adolescent is understood to be too young to comprehend the risks and consequences of puberty blockers. However, trans children are seen as in need of protection from puberty itself, and the associated distress. Where in the former argument waiting is imbued with a protective function, here doing nothing is seen as the larger risk, and puberty blockers as a relatively low-risk option with high gains. As we reflected on these tensions as they play out in the dialog, we came to think that where one lands has at least in part to do with beliefs and values each of us carry regarding the significance of bodily interventions and the role of biology in psychic development. The literature on puberty blockers as a treatment for gender dysphoria in adolescents is relatively new, with current treatment protocols showing generally positive psychological outcomes (if you subscribe to the findings and presuppositions of statistical psychology, which are often questioned by psychoanalysts), alongside indications of some possible risk to bone density and fertility ( Mahfouda et al. 2017 ; Rew et al. 2021 ; Turban et al. 2020 ). How do we think about these kinds of risks and uncertainties? Are they serious enough to warrant abstaining, or are the benefits (such as the relief of distress or the possibility of a better esthetic outcome) large enough to outweigh them? And when it comes to considering the psychological impact of delaying puberty, how does one think about the relationship between psychic life and biological processes? We felt that participants’ different views and concerns on these questions reflected larger ideological differences and value systems that cannot be neatly sorted into “progressive” or “conservative.”

Gender and meaning

Another area of tension concerns the question “why?,” or the linking of gender to meanings that move beyond it. This is central to the moment between Silber and Wiggins referenced earlier, where Wiggins pushes back on Silber’s elaboration of a gendered expression in relation to trauma. Both highlight important aspects to the question of gender and meaning. Silber advocates for the need to think about all that may be represented by a gendered statement, in addition to its face value. Here the searching for “why” becomes a means for expanded listening, to help catch more of a child’s experience and facilitate its movement into representation. Silber’s focus on translating a child’s statements is a useful counterpoint to the reverence for unknowability that Gozlan articulates, as it points to the prior need to experience one’s expressions as understandable or digestible. This process of coming-to-know and to experience one’s thoughts as knowable is arguably necessary in order to eventually face the limits to what can be known.

While sensitive to the dangers of “truncating” the emotional complexity of gender and transition, Wiggins, on the other hand, alerts us to the ways such an exploratory process can, and does, become perverted. This is a subtle, but important point, that hypotheses or interpretations offered under the guise of further exploration can be made in order to push a patient toward a more normative gender. Gozlan describes this as the “Russian Doll” approach, where there is a search for the layers of meaning underlying a gender expression, with the assumption that after the layers have been uncovered the gender variance will disappear. Taken together, these points remind us of the fragility of a space for actual curiosity, and the important clinical tension between respecting a patient’s statements and inviting elaboration.

Affirmation vs. neutrality

A final area of tension concerns the gender affirmative model of care, which has gained widespread support and is presented by many in the mental health field as the treatment of choice when working with gender non-conforming children. For those unfamiliar, Wiggins offers a clear and succinct definition of the affirmative model as one that “asks the child about their gender identity, believing in the authentic face-value of their gendered assertions, and supports requests for physical and social transition.” Such direct support appears to most contributors in stark contrast to psychoanalytic ideas of neutrality and the discipline’s refusal to take any statement at “face value,” a tension that plays out productively in the dialog that follows.

A consensus becomes clear among contributors regarding the implicit support of referring to patients by the pronouns or names they ask us to. However, when it comes to explicit support for medical treatment, or direct affirmation of patients’ statements about their identities, more nuanced differences emerge. Watson criticizes what she sees as the ready-made quality of the affirmative model, in that offering immediate support for a patient’s statements implies that the statements can and have been quickly understood. Such quick support here communicates that the face value, or socially accepted meaning of a statement is all that need be looked at, which does not allow the singularity of the patient’s speech to be addressed or supported. Wiggins is concerned that when immediate support is withheld, exactly the space Watson imagines being opened up will be shut down, especially given the larger social context of failed mirroring and outright refusal that permeates the lives of trans people. Together, Watson and Wiggins evoke the tension between attending to the radical singularity of patients while also taking account of the shared social and political phenomena in which we live.

This tension between affirmation and neutrality left us thinking about a third term, acceptance, which relates to but differs from both. While one could define neutrality as the (full) acceptance of all aspects of a patient, the latter term underlines the inviting element in the stance. This is to highlight that what can pass for neutral can in reality be skepticism, anxiety, or even blatant refusal – just think of the variety of communications that can be delivered in the phrase “no comment” or the general atmosphere thereof. But acceptance of a patient’s statements also differs from affirmation, in that it refers to a more passive, rather than active process. Acceptance is of the order of receptivity; something is taken in, in order to be thought about and worked with. Affirmation, on the other hand, is outwardly directed; something external is shored up. Where accepting a patient’s statements is a first step toward further thinking, affirming them is the solidification of thoughts that have already occurred. When it comes to the psychoanalytic task of facilitating personal discovery, it seems the former is the more apt, as it is an open, and so positive, engagement that also does not claim authority over or reify what is ultimately someone else’s process. But actual acceptance of what our patients bring us, perhaps akin to actual curiosity, is much easier to speak about than implement, especially within an arena as charged as gender. We believe that each contributor exhibits a commitment to precisely this treacherous, albeit necessary task. Together, they carve out a way of working with trans children that is deeply thoughtful and respectful, paving a way forward for all of us.

1 The decision has had reverberations across Europe, with Sweden subsequently basing a decision to halt under 16s’ access to puberty blockers on the Tavistock ruling ( Parsons 2021 ; see also The Economist 2021 ).

2 It is noteworthy that this decision, which applies to children under the age of sixteen, relied on the evidence of someone who began her medical transition after that age.

3 Gender diversity refers broadly to gender identities, expressions or roles that differ from the norms associated with one’s assigned sex. The term was developed as an alternative to “gender non-conforming,” which can be seen as stigmatizing. While no term is without problems, we use the terms interchangeably here in accordance with their broader use. For more information on terms, see Key Concepts In Understanding Gender Diversity and Sexual Orientation Among Students ( APA 2015 ).

4 More recent academic engagement with the work of relational psychoanalysts such as Jessica Benjamin, as well as Winnicott and Klein, suggests that Lacan’s influence here may be waning (e.g. Ahmed 2006 ; Allen 2020 ; Bowker and Buzby 2017 ; Butler 2021 ).Interestingly, this seems concurrent with a rise in Anglo-American clinicians engaging with Lacanian ideas and approaches (at least in our anecdotal experience).

5 Until recently, Lacanian analysts, like many others, tended to conceive of the demand for transition as a psychotic “solution” likely to produce further psychic turmoil if actualized. This view has been significantly challenged and complicated in recent years due, in no small part, to the pioneering work of Lacanian analyst Patricia Gherovici (2010 , 2017 ).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributors

Hannah Wallerstein , PhD is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in private practice in Ann Arbor, Michigan. She is adjunct faculty at the Austen Riggs Center, and clinical supervisor for the CCNY Doctoral program.

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113 Gender Roles Essay Topics & Examples

Looking for gender roles essay topics? This field is hot, controversial, and really worth exploring!

• 🔝 Top 10 Gender Topics
• 📝 Gender Essay: Writing Tips
• 🏆 Gender Essay Examples & Topic Ideas

✍️ Gender Argumentative Essay Topics

❓ research questions about gender roles.

In your gender role essay, you might want to focus on the issues of gender equality in the workplace. Another exciting option is to write about gender stereotypes in education. Finally, you can elaborate on how traditional gender roles are changing.

In this article, you’ll find a list of gender argumentative essay topics, ideas for papers on gender and society, as well as top gender roles essay examples.

🔝 Top 10 Gender Roles Topics

• Gender stereotypes and the way they affect people
• Fighting gender stereotypes and sexism
• Gender equality in the workplace
• Gender stereotypes in education
• Gender schema theory
• Is gender socially constructed?
• Social learning theory and gender
• Gender roles and sexual orientation
• Body image and gender
• Social gender construction in the media

📝 Gender Roles Essay: Writing Tips

Essays on gender roles present students’ understanding of the similarities, differences, and aspects of gender roles in society.

Writing gender roles essays helps learners to understand the significance of topics related to gender roles and the changes in societal norms. Students should be highly aware of the problems associated with traditional gender roles. For example, there are many periods in world history, in which people did not have equal rights.

Moreover, some aspects of gender roles may be associated with discrimination. To make an essay on this problem outstanding, you should discuss the problem in detail and present your points clearly. A useful tip is to develop a good structure for your paper.

Before starting to work on the paper, you should select the problem that is most interesting or relevant to you.

Gender roles essay topics and titles may include:

• The history of gender roles and their shifts throughout the time
• Male and female roles in society
• Gender roles in literature and media
• How a man and a woman is perceived in current society
• The causes and outcomes of gender discrimination
• The problem of ‘glass ceiling’
• The problem of social stratification and its outcomes
• The revolution in the concept of gender

After selecting the issue for discussion, you can start working on the essay’s structure. Here are some useful tips on how to structure your paper:

• Select the topic you want to discuss (you can choose one from the list above). Remember to pay attention to the type of essay you should write. If it is an argumentative essay, reflect on what problem you would want to analyze from opposing perspectives.
• Gender roles essay titles are important because they can help you to get the reader’s attention. Think of something simple but self-explanatory.
• An introductory paragraph is necessary, as it will present the questions you want to discuss in the paper. Remember to state the thesis of your essay in this section.
• Think of your gender roles essay prompts. Which aspects of the selected problem do you want to focus on? Dedicate a separate section for each of the problems.
• Remember to include a refutation section if you are writing an argumentative essay. In this section, you should discuss an alternative perspective on the topic in 1-2 paragraphs. Do not forget to outline why your opinion is more credible than the alternative one.
• Avoid making the paragraphs and sentences too long. You can stick to a 190 words maximum limit for one paragraph. At the same time, make sure that the paragraphs are longer than 65 words. Try to make all sections of the body paragraphs of similar length.
• Check out examples online to see how you can structure your paper and organize the information. Pay attention to the number of paragraphs other students include.
• Remember to include a gender roles essay conclusion. In this paragraph, you will discuss the most important claims of your paper.
• Do not forget to add a reference page in which you will include the sources used in the paper. Ask your professor in advance about the types of literature you can utilize for the essay.

Do not forget that there are free samples on our website that can help you to get the best ideas for your essay!

🏆 Gender Roles Essay Examples & Topic Ideas

• Gender Roles in Antigone Essay This will be seen through an analysis of the other characters in the play and the values of ancient Greeks. Indeed this central character appears to be at odds with the inclinations of the other […]
• Conflict of Gender Roles in Munro’s “Boys and Girls” Munro’s “Boys and Girls” is a story about a puzzled girl who struggles to find the balance between the battles of her inner female-housewife side, like her mother, and a boyish character who likes to […]
• Gender Roles in “Bridge to Terabithia” by Paterson The theme of gender roles is consistently present in the novel, starting with character origins and becoming the central concept as they mature to defy archetypal perceptions of feminine and masculine expectations in order to […]
• Gender Roles: Changes From the Late 1800’s to Today The definition of who is a male or a female depends on the types of gender roles one was exposed to during the early ages. In today’s society, we have a greater number of women […]
• Ideology of Gender Roles In the world of literature, ideology has played a vital role in depicting the condition of the society. In this scenario, Kingston reveals that the men out-live their roles in the society, and they are […]
• Gender Roles in “The Glass Menagerie” by Tennessee Williams In the play The Glass Menagerie, Tennessee Williams has written the story of the Wingfield family that lived in St Louis during the 1940s.
• Gender Roles Inversion: The Madonna Phenomenon At the same time partial narrowing of the gender gap in the context of economic participation did not lead to the equality of men and women in the field of their occupations.
• Gender Roles in Society One might think that a child is born with the idea of how to behave in relation to gender while in the real sense; it is the cultivation of the society that moulds people to […]
• Gender roles in the Wind in the Willows For instance, in the case where both the mole and the rat make comments to the toad that are full of women critics.
• Athena and Gender Roles in Greek Mythology According to Eicher and Roach-Higgins, the elements of her dress were important because they immediately communicated specific ideas about her character that was as contradictory as the physical gender of the birthing parent.”In appropriating the […]
• Gender Roles in The Yellow Wallpaper & Trifles The two texts; the short story ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’ by Charlotte Perkins and the play ‘Trifles’ by Susan Glaspell strategically illustrate this claim since they both aim at attracting the reader’s attention to the poor […]
• Gender Roles and Stereotyping in Education Teachers should be trained to give clear and useful instruction to students on the issue of gender roles in modern society.
• Gender Roles in ‘Mr. Green’ by Robert Olen Butler Green Butler uses the character of the grandfather to develop the theme of gender roles within the culture. The character of the grandfather is extremely sound for the cultural beliefs the author conveyed through all […]
• Gender Roles Set in Stone: Prehistoric and Ancient Work of Arts In the prehistoric and ancient works of art, the representation of women and men reveals a massive imbalance in gender equity that favors men over women.
• Discussing Gender Roles in the Interaction Perspective It is the purpose of this issue to discuss the concept of gender roles using the sociological perspective of symbolic interaction.
• Analysis of the Peculiarities of Gender Roles Within Education, Families and Student Communities Peculiarities of gender aspect within the education system and labour market Attitude for marriage of men and women as one of the major aspects within the analysis of gender roles Family relations as a significant […]
• Women’s Gender Roles in American Literature The stories written by Constance Woolson Fenimore, Mary Wilkins Freeman, and Jaqueline Bishop highlight the harmful gender roles and discrimination that still remains a major topic for disputes and illustrate the fate of oppressed women.
• The Change of Gender Roles This similarity is one of the most important to focus on the structure of the narrative. In both plays, the main actions of the characters are not directly described by the authors.
• Gender Roles in the 19th Century Society: Charlotte Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper However, the narrator’s developing madness can also act as the symbolical depiction of the effects of the men’s dominance on women and the female suppression in the 19th-century society.”The Yellow Wallpaper” was first published in […]
• The Concepts of Gender Roles and Sexuality by John Money and Judith Butler These categories of feminists are united in the belief of existence of many children and little sex. This paper explains the concepts and ideologies relating to gender roles and sexuality.as advocated by John Money and […]
• Gender Roles in South Korean Laws and Society At the same time, all custody is traditionally granted to husbands and fathers in a case of a divorce” though the anxiety about the high divorce rate and the nasty endings of relationships is more […]
• Fashions, gender roles and social views of the 1950s and 1960s Fashion was highly valued and this can be seen in the way the clothes worn by the wives of the presidential candidates in America hit the headlines. In the 1950s, the role of housekeeping and […]
• Gender Roles in Brady’s and Theroux’s Works In the satire “Being a Man” by Paul Theroux, the author demonstrates to readers the essence of how a particular manifestation of masculinity is extolled in American society.
• Evaluating Gender Roles in Nursing The purpose of this study was to explore perspectives on the experience and gender roles of male and female students, as well as how they think about their future professional roles.
• Aspects of Gender Roles and Identity The breadth of her practice in transgender issues suggests that every choice Bowers makes is ethical, requiring her to be respectful and highly responsible.
• Changing Gender Roles in Families Over Time The division of labor and traditional gender roles in the family usually consists of men doing the work while women take care of the children, other relatives, and housekeeping.
• Gender Roles, Expectations, and Discrimination Despite Isaac being the calmest boy in the school, he had a crush on Grace, a beautiful girl in the school who was from a wealthy family.
• Gender Roles in Social Constructionism The reality, in the view of sociologists, is a social attitude in connection with which a personality is formed that adapts to the requirements of the world.
• Gender Roles and Stereotypes in Straightlaced Film One might conclude that gender neutrality and abstraction in offices are only a cover to maintain the basis of gender injustice.
• Gender Roles and Body Images The media has one of the most widespread and significant effects on how we perceive men and women. It is incorrectly assumed that men are the cultural norm, while women stay invisible and underrepresented by […]
• Biology and Gender Roles in Society Thus, it may be more convenient for society to justify the imposition of certain gender roles on men and women using biology-related arguments, which, in reality, are more related to culture and social development.
• Children’s Views of Gender Roles Today, both parents and teachers see the positive impact of the attempts to integrate anti-biased gender-related education on young children as they get more freedom to express themselves and grow up less aggressive.
• The Construction of Gender Roles However, it is wrong to consider women exposed to the domestic work powerless, as they have the opportunity to informally or implicitly influence men and the decisions they make.
• Sociology of the Family: Gender Roles Thus, the societal predisposition and notion that women are lesser in the community should be abandoned, and greater emphasis should be placed on the critical functions they perform in the household. These assertions, equivocations, and […]
• Femininity and Masculinity: Understanding Gender Roles The understanding of how gender roles are portrayed in the media and the general perception of the expected behavior for men and women communicated non-verbally in the society is the basis on which children build […]
• Injustice Within Strict Gender Roles There is still no clear answer to how a person can find his or her destiny and place in the world, and understand the opportunities and prospects, considering the opinion of the dominant number of […]
• Gender Roles and Body Image in Disney Movies In this research, attention will be paid to gender roles and body images of Disney princesses to understand the popularity of the franchise and its impact on child development.
• Gender Roles and How People Perceive Them However, all of the survey participants indicated that their families would be inclined to differentiate between the toys for a child based on the latter’s sex and the corresponding perceived gender role.
• Early Gender Roles, Modern Interpretations, and the Origin of Stereotypes Since each gender was assigned a particular role in the past due to the differences in the biological makeup between a man and a woman in the prehistoric era, the modern process of communication between […]
• Gender Roles in TV Commercials and Values in the Society Each of them will watch, code, and analyze the TV commercials separately; at the end of the procedure, their results will be compared in order to ensure the inter-observer reliability of the chosen research method.
• Toxic Masculinity and Gender Roles: New Aspects in Discussions Between Men and Women It is believed that men have to be silent and invincible warriors who exercise power due to their status of a man.
• Gender Roles in Contemporary Society The conditions of life are tough and it is presumed that only men are able to carry out such hardships and limitations of a soldier life.
• Culture and History: Gender Roles Over the Past 50 or So Years It is not that there were no women in the workforce; it was just that she had to choose one over the other, juggling the two was quite rare and unheard of.
• Gender Roles and Sexuality in Media: Cosmopolitan & Maxim The woman portrayed in these sites is supposed to look ‘hot’ and sexy in order to be attractive to a man.
• The Problem of Gender Roles in Society Based on Plays by Glaspell and Ibsen The men in the play are constantly showing their self-importance, they are trying to act like real detectives, and they do not even realize that Mrs. But, all of a sudden, the moment of repaying […]
• Social Element in Gender Roles I learned of the origins of gay and lesbian studies, as well that of the confining of such studies in earlier times to specific institutions.
• Equality: The Use of TV to Develop Our Gender Roles In this sense, when it is the men who predominantly work outside of the home, they will usually see the home as a place of leisure and so use the TV as a source of […]
• Gender Roles in Brady’s “Why I Want a Wife” and Sacks’ “Stay-at-Home Dads” Yet, there are some distinctions Judy Brady believes that women are often viewed as unpaid house servants who have to take care of husbands’ needs, whereas Glenn Sacks argues that gender roles begin to transform […]
• Gender Roles and Family Systems in Hispanic Culture In the Hispanic culture, amarianismo’ and amachismo’ are the terms used to determine the various behavioral expectations among the family members.
• Family Unit and Gender Roles in Society and Market The role of molding the infant into an adult belonged to the family in the ancient society. In the past, the father was expected to be the breadwinner of the family.
• Gender Roles and Social Classes in Wartime The message is as simple as “The women of Britain say ‘Go.’” It points to the role of both men and women in wartime.
• The Necessity for Gender Roles The potential change from the elimination of the differences in gender may affect every perceived part of one’s life. Such factors as one’s occupation, status, and appearance may also contribute to the creation of stereotypes.
• China’s Gender Roles in Mo Yan’s and Shen Fu’s Works Six Records of a Floating Life is a multi-faceted chronicle which helps to comprehend the difficulties and the features of Shen Fu’s life and the romance between him and his beloved Chen Yun.
• Changing Gender Roles Between Boys and Girls In the twenty-first Century, girls have greatly stepped up and assumed some of the roles that were considered to be boy’s while boys have done the same leading to an interchange of roles.
• Nomadic Society’s Gender Roles and Warrior Culture On the one hand, it was clear that the 1100s and the 1200s included the period of male power. It was wrong to assume that all women were similar and treat them in the same […]
• “Beside Oneself” by Judith Butler: Gender Roles Following the views of the author, who states that choice in the formation of gender and sexuality is not transparent, and a key role is still played by others in the form of expectations and […]
• Gender Roles in Couples and Sex Stereotypes Altogether, the last reconsiderations of the nature of relations promoted the appearance of numerous debates related to the role of partners and their right to be the leader.
• Understanding the Social Element in Gender Roles When saying that gender is a binary construction, one implies that there are two genders, namely, the masculine and the feminine one, and two corresponding types of social behaviour, which are predetermined by the existing […]
• Gender Roles in Tango: Cultural Aspects However, one should not assume that the role of women in tango is inferior because they create the most aesthetic aspects of this dance.
• Gender Roles in Toy Stores According to Fisher-Thompson et al, two of the major differentiating factors in toys for girls and boys are color and nature.
• Women in Hip-Hop Music: A Provocative and Objectified Gender Roles It is one thing that men want women to be in music videos and play a particular role, but women are willing to participate in the videos.
• Content Analysis of Gender Roles in Media In the critical analysis of the article, the point of disagreement is that of under-representation of women in the media. How do the media subordinate and relegate roles of women in society?
• Effects of Media Messages about Gender Roles Media articles, such as the Maxim Magazine and the Cosmopolitan Magazine, socialize individuals to believe that women are very different from men as regards to dressing, behaving, and eating.
• Gender Equality: Male Dominance The simple reason is that gender inequality exists in affluent societies wherein women are free to do what they want, have access to education, and have the capacity to create wealth.
• “The Odd Women” and “Women in Love”: Evolving Views of Gender Roles An effort is also made to track the changes of the roles of women in the social fabric in the Victorian era by considering The Odd Women by George Gissing written in 1893.
• Gender Roles: Constructing Gender Identity In the course of the twentieth century and at the threshold of the twenty-first century, the images and roles of gender have constantly been changing.
• Concepts of Gender Roles As a result of these, the war on gender inequality and sexism has failed, because of the failure of these agents of change to promote gender equality and eliminate discriminative notions held by the society.
• Cohabitation and Division of Gender Roles in a Couple Cohabitation is perceived in the society as the form of relationships which is an effective alternative to the traditional marriage because of focusing on the principles of flexibility, freedom, and equality, but few couples can […]
• Gender Roles in the United States Over the Last Century The men’s perception towards this idea was negative, and this consequently resulted to a conflict with the men claiming that the roles of the women were in the kitchen.
• Gender Roles by Margaret Mead Once the a rift defining men and women develops this way, it goes further and defines the positions, which men and women occupy in the society, basing on these physical and biological differences, which form […]
• Cheating, Gender Roles, and the Nineteenth-Century Croquet Craze The author’s main thesis is, “Yet was this, in fact, how the game was played on the croquet lawns of the nineteenth century?” Whereas authors of croquet manuals and magazines emphasize so much on the […]
• Gender Roles in Cartoons Though the males are portrayed to be logical, but it is shown that the females are more successful because of simple blunders or miscalculations which males fail to understand, females are able to beat males […]
• The Industrial Revolution Impact on the Gender Roles The population growth combined with the increased productivity of small parts of the country and the migration of the now landless people in search of work opportunities led to the phenomena of urbanization.
• How Does Aristophanes Represent Gender Roles in Lysistrata?
• Are Gender Roles and Relationships More Equal in Modern Family Life?
• How Do Children Develop Gender Roles?
• Does Men’s Fashion Reflect Changes in Male Gender Roles?
• How Did Colonialism Resonate With Gender Roles and Oppression?
• Are Gender Roles Damaging Society?
• How Did Revolutions Affect Gender Roles?
• Are Gender Roles Defined by Society or by Genetics?
• How Have Family Structure and Gender Roles Changed?
• Are Gender Roles Fluid When Dealing With Death and Tragedy?
• How Do Gender Roles Affect Communication?
• Are Gender Roles Natural?
• How Do Gender Roles Affect Immigrants?
• Are Gender Stereotyped Roles Correct?
• How Do Gender Roles Affect the Physical and Emotional Health?
• Have Gender Roles Played a Big Part in the History?
• How Do Gender Roles and Extroversion Effects How Much People Talk?
• What Are Gender Roles? How Are They Defined?
• How Are Gender Roles Predetermined by the Environment?
• What Drives the Gender Wage Gap?
• How Has Gender Roles Changed Over the Last Centuries?
• What Factors Influence Gender Roles?
• How Have Gender Roles in Japanese Theatre Influenced and Affected Societal View on Homosexuality and Masculinity?
• What Society Norms for Gender Roles Should Be Conceived?
• How Have Traditional Gender Roles Been Stressful?
• What Was Distinctive About Gender Roles in the Nineteenth Century?
• How Has Hegemonic Masculinity Set Ideas of Gender Roles?
• How Do Media and Politics Influence Gender Roles?
• Where Does the Truth on Gender Roles Lie in Nahua and Mayan Civilizations?
• How Radical Are the Changes to the Gender Roles in Carter’s “The Company of Wolves”?
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IvyPanda . 2024. "113 Gender Roles Essay Topics & Examples." February 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/gender-roles-essay-examples/.

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IvyPanda . "113 Gender Roles Essay Topics & Examples." February 26, 2024. https://ivypanda.com/essays/topic/gender-roles-essay-examples/.

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The Issue of Transgender Discrimination

Discrimination and transgender community.

Despite numerous attempts to eliminate biased attitudes, transgender people still face different challenges that deteriorate the results of treatment. The first barrier is the discrimination that is still observed in multiple health facilities. Both patients and health workers might demonstrate inappropriate behaviors towards people who decided to alter their sex. It might trigger an outburst of aggressive emotions or unwillingness to remain in the same room with transgender people (Watkinson & Sunderland, 2017). Statistics also show that discriminative attitudes and behaviors result in the significant postponement of care provided to this very group of people (Watkinson & Sunderland, 2017). Averagely, transgender people wait twice longer than other patients. It results from the lack of their states understanding and inability to remain tolerant.

Another significant barrier this group of patients faces in modern healthcare is the inadequate education and training among healthcare specialists. The fact is that numerous health issues peculiar to transgender people demand unusual care and procedures (Watkinson & Sunderland, 2017). However, a significant part of workers does not possess the knowledge needed to attain appropriate results. Moreover, the lack of training opportunities for the staff contributes to the creation of situations in which specialists do not know how to behave and treat patients.

Finally, almost all transgender people have to engage in problematic, uncomfortable, and intolerant interactions with health workers and other patients. These appear because of the otherness of this category and the low level of their needs awareness peculiar to the modern society (Watkinson & Sunderland, 2017). All these factors have a pernicious impact on the health of this group of patients. Moreover, they might precondition the emergence of new problems regarding the relations between transgender people and other individuals within the healthcare sector.

The existence of multiple barriers within the healthcare sector has a significant impact on the transgender community. First, it decreases the level of trust in health workers and repels community members from using care services. It becomes a critical problem as disregard of diverse aspects might significantly deteriorate the state of the health of the transgender community and precondition a significant decrease in the quality of these peoples lives (Bradford, Reisner, Honnold, & Xavier, 2013). At the same time, the unwillingness to visit hospitals increases the gap between caregivers and transgenders. It negatively affects the transgender community and their relations with society.

Another problem arising from healthcare providers discriminative behaviors is the development of depression among this category of patients and their refusal to live a full life. For instance, the question of pregnancy is one of the most disputable issues associated with transgender people (Bradford et al., 2013). People and health workers unwillingness to accept this fact precondition drastic alterations in moods and the growth in the number of suicides among transgenders (Bradford et al., 2013). Moreover, high depression levels can be explained by these patients exclusion of traditional forms of discourse and the creation of biased attitudes toward them.

Transgender people also experience numerous problems with employment because of their discrimination by caregivers. The inability to acquire appropriate care significantly decreases the level of performance and minimizes the opportunity to find a good job. By the statistics, the level of transgender peoples incomes is much lower if compare with other patients (Bradford et al., 2013). It negatively impacts the evolution of the transgender community and reduces its members chances to integrate with the traditional society, create families, and engage intolerant or friendly relations with other individuals.

One of the central causes of the emergence and development of discriminative behaviors towards transgender people is the lack of protection and their vague status. At the moment, almost all health care plans are not covered for transition-related care (Safer et al., 2016). Additionally, the government does not provide clear instructions or recommendations on how to work with this category. For this reason, medical professionals are not able to apply for health care subsidies or guarantee the appropriate delivery of care (Safer et al., 2016).

With this in mind, the program aimed at the reconsideration of the given problem on the state level should be initiated. It is central to create the legal framework that monitors the state of transgender people, assesses their needs, and guarantees all need services. The elaboration of the given approach should be accomplished regarding the existing problems these patients face and drawbacks in knowledge peculiar to health workers (Safer et al., 2016). That is why both transgenders and healthcare specialists should be engaged in the process of new policy creation.

Its central aspects should touch upon additional training for specialists and the appropriate code of conduct that should be recommended for all healthcare facilities in the state. The lack of preparedness and knowledge about how to provide care to this category are fundamental barriers transgender people face (Safer et al., 2016). For this reason, the suggested program should be focused on educating health workers on how to behave and work. Moreover, it should cultivate tolerant cooperation with transgender people by emphasizing the impossibility of discrimination and biased attitudes in modern society. Finally, to guarantee this category included in the life of communities, employers should be stimulated to create job opportunities and hire representatives of this group. Only under these conditions, some progress can be achieved.

Bradford, J., Reisner, S., Honnold, J., & Xavier, J. (2013). Experiences of transgender-related discrimination and implications for health: Results from the Virginia transgender health initiative study . American Journal of Public Health, 103 (10), 1820-1829.

Safer, J., Coleman, E., Feldman, J., Garofalo, R., Hembree, W., Radix, A., & Sevelius, J. (2016). Barriers to health care for transgender individuals. Current Opinion in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Obesity, 23 (2), 168-171.

Watkinson, D., & Sunderland, C. (2017). How discrimination affects access to healthcare for transgender people. Nursing Times, 113 (4), 36-39.

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Gender Roles Essay: Topics Ideas And Tips

This type academic writing assignment requires students to take a position on a topic related to gender issues – These are generally issues we deal with on a day-to-day basis and our understanding of them make them excellent topics to discuss in an argumentative or persuasive format. We’ve included five tips for writing a great assignment as well as a handful of topics for you to consider.

What Are Gender Roles?

Throughout history, the concepts of sex and gender have evolved.

Specifically, gender roles are the socially normalized roles that men and women have within a society.

Generally, an example of gender roles would be that women are supposed to take care of the household and children, while men are meant to be the providers. This is a very basic example. Currently, gender roles are relevant for in the modern world concepts of gender are constantly evolving and being studied. What are the differences between sex and gender? What does it mean to withstand normalized gender roles? These are only the surface of all the relevant, contemporary questions relating to gender.

Gender Equality Essay: Five Writing Tips

For the concept of gender roles is a widespread one, it might feel daunting when beginning to write an essay about it. Here are some tips to help you get started and carry you on throughout the process.

Consider a variety of arguable topics You college professor might have sets of acceptable gender essay topics to choose from. These are safe starting points towards developing your own gender topics to write about. If you don’t find anything in these sets that you find particularly interesting, consider writing about something you are passionate about and would like to explore further through adequate academic research. Always get approval from your professor before starting any work, and have a few different topics to fall back on if your first choice is not accepted or proves to be more difficult than expected. Research materials and take comprehensive notes Be sure to take great gender studies notes when you do your research. Start by simply looking up your topic on the web and taking down factual information and listing resources for you to check further. You can start broadly and work your way towards a focused topic dealing with a central question and a few supplementary or sub-topics. You can also use famous quotes to grab readers’ attention. Hemingway’s quotes may come in handy here. Next, take your preliminary notes and list of resources to the library and start digging more in-depth. Your citations (i.e., supporting evidence and examples) should all come from trustworthy and current academic or government resources. Develop an outline and start writing Summarize your research notes into a single thesis and about 3 – 5 discussion points. These should be the strongest statements to make in support of the thesis. They will make up your body paragraphs and depending on the length of your paper should all fit within the standard 5 – 7 paragraph form. Next, start writing! You’ve got a focused idea and your time spent researching should allow you to write extensively on the topic. Don’t worry about getting the words perfect. Just write what comes to mind and keep referring to your outline. Revise, edit and proofread your writing It’s a good idea to get as far away from your essay on gender roles as possible. Some students can get away for as much as a week, but even a day or two can improve the level and quality of revising, editing and proofreading your mater to ensure it’s the best writing it can be. Print out your document and use a bright-colored pen or marker to highlight, underline, and cross-out any words, phrases, or sentences that need to change or omitted entirely. Your aim is to express your argument in an as clear and as concise way as possible. Edit and proofread for grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Don’t just rely on auto-checkers. By re-reading your work carefully in printed form you will catch small mistakes you likely would not have noticed on a computer screen. Have someone else review your work Lastly, have a friend or classmate read through your gender inequality essay one last time. All of the time and energy you have spent on the assignment may cloud your judgment when it comes to critiquing your own writing. An unbiased look done by someone else can point out confusing language or small mistakes that both the auto-checker and you might have missed due to your own familiarity with the topic can detract from your differences between sex and gender essay.

Great Gender Essay Topics That Generate Interest

Here are some interesting gender topics to get you started, or help you come up with something you want to write about:

• Write a gender roles in society essay dealing with the different ways in which men and women are portrayed, perceived and treated and how moving away from these norms can be looked at as a negative behavior.
• Write a gender roles in Macbeth essay discussing the ways in which Shakespeare plays with non-traditional portrayals in men and women and how this affects the viewer’s or reader’s perception of masculinity and femininity.
• Despite the strides that women have made professionally and academically in the U.S., there are still large gaps in equal pay and respect. Write a gender roles in America essay explaining the reasons why equality is still hard to achieve.
• Write a gender stereotypes essay in which you explain the types of characterizations that are used to over-generalize men and women. Are there certain areas in society where these characterizations are more prevalent than in others?
• Write a gender discrimination essay in which you explore the most common instances of prejudice in hiring practices at multi-billion dollar corporations. What does this say about the way society feels about women in positions of power?
• How do marriages in different parts of the world help maintain traditional views of gender roles? Write an argumentative gender roles in society essay in which you take a position in support of traditional viewpoints/opinions of marital and family dynamics.

Further is a list of more, specific topics that you might find useful and are free to use:

Gender Roles Essay Topics

Do you think there is a disparity between how women and men are treated in society? You can write one of these gender roles essays that can be creative.

• How do gender roles affect how people live?
• How are gender roles portrayed in society?
• The major gender norms and gender roles.
• The sociological perspective of gender roles.
• The major family values and gender roles.
• Evaluate the gender role theory.
• Make a comparison of the major cultural gender roles.
• The gender roles as portrayed during war and peace.
• The relation between gender roles and stereotypes.
• How are gender roles portrayed in Disney?
• The gender roles portrayed in Russia.

Good Gender Essay Topics

These are some of the best gender essay topics that can help you to attain top grades. Just try to be neutral while writing the essays to ensure you aren’t biased.

• Major expectations accustomed to gender roles.
• Gender roles of a patriarchal society.
• Significance of gender roles in modern society.
• Religious view of gender roles.
• The major psychological effects of gender roles.
• Relation between masculinity and gender roles.
• The relation between gender roles and gender stratification.
• The importance of gender roles in the development of countries.
• Why do different societies need gender roles?
• What do you think society would look like without gender roles?
• The importance of gender roles to the build-up of a family?

Interesting Gender Equality Essay Topics

Are you looking for an advanced gender essay? Here are some of the best ideas. They are ideal and will help you to learn more about how men and women are treated in different environments.

• The gender roles as portrayed in “Things fall apart”.
• The major social expectations that both women and men have.
• Gender roles and stereotypes associated with it.
• Impact of gender roles in consciousness and grief.
• Attitudes and behaviors associated with gender roles.
• The perspective of gender roles and identity in the family.
• Evaluate gender as portrayed by Shakespeare in his work.
• Gender equality in Britain in the 20th century.
• Gender discrimination in the workplace.
• Impact of gender roles in workplace performance.
• Is gender a culturally or biologically prescribed role?

Controversial Gender Research Topics

How good are you with research? You can use these topics for your research project, research thesis, or dissertation. They are ideal, easy, and straightforward topics on gender.

• Is gender natural or acquired?
• Modern issues of the gender studies.
• Role of gender in society.
• Role of gender in social media interactions.
• Role of gender in cartoons and commercials.
• The gender roles as portrayed in cartoons.
• Do you think there are gender biases in the workplace environment?
• Social construction of gender.
• The impact of gender-neutral upbringing.
• How is gender inequality portrayed in Iran politics?
• Major causes and treatment of gender dysphoria.

Gender Argumentative Essay Topics

At times you can get confused about the various issues about gender, and might even feel like you need sociology homework help or essay assistance. Well, here are some of the best gender argumentative essay topics that you can start with.

• The relation between sex, gender, and inequalities.
• Is gender equality and peace connected?
• Relation better gender equality and family division of labor.
• Role of gender equality in economic development.
• The importance of gender inequality in the modern family.
• How is gender equality achievable?
• How do you think women are still being held back by stereotypes?
• Should women’s equality be a gradual process?
• How governments can foster courage in women.
• The negative effects of sexual harassment in the office.
• Should both women and men be given maternity leave?

Gender Inequality Essay Topics

Everyone in society should be treated equally regardless of status. Here are some of the best gender essay topics that you can start with.

• Gender inequality in Canada and Algeria.
• The gender inequality portrayed in Afghanistan.
• Gender inequality as portrayed in family businesses.
• Gender inequality and the historical origin.
• Gender inequality and health disparities.
• Gender inequality as a global problem.
• The major issues surrounding gender inequality in the workplace.
• The scarcity of water and its effect on gender inequality.
• How is gender inequality defined as unequal treatment?
• Gender inequality in the women’s rights movement.
• The gender inequality issues in international relations.

Best Gender Roles Essay Topics

Do you know the various gender roles that people should have in society? People have different roles in society and that should be respected. Try your best in this gender roles topics.

• Major gender inequalities features.
• Impact of gender inequality on employee satisfaction.
• The major consequences of gender inequality.
• Major legislation as associated with gender inequality.
• Do gender roles help women to relate better in the workplace?
• Effectiveness of state enforcement of gender equality roles.
• Do you think women are being held back by stereotypes?

Need More Help With Gender Roles Essay?

This article provides you with basic, albeit valuable, information on writing a great essay about gender roles for any advanced college or graduate-level course in women and gender studies, but you might feel compelled to get even more assistance towards creating the perfect assignment. This is where a good professional assignment service can prove to be an indispensable resource.

A professional service can provide you with custom gender roles essay topics, gender roles essay tips and tricks, and gender essay template outlines to help you get started. The ability to pay people to do your homework is now more accessible than ever. Contact customer support before starting your assignment to discuss all of the different ways a service can be of assistance. In addition to making the writing experience much easier, a good service will make writing a gender identity essay more enjoyable.

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• How to write an essay outline | Guidelines & examples

How to Write an Essay Outline | Guidelines & Examples

Published on August 14, 2020 by Jack Caulfield . Revised on July 23, 2023.

An essay outline is a way of planning the structure of your essay before you start writing. It involves writing quick summary sentences or phrases for every point you will cover in each paragraph , giving you a picture of how your argument will unfold.

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Organizing your material, presentation of the outline, examples of essay outlines, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about essay outlines.

At the stage where you’re writing an essay outline, your ideas are probably still not fully formed. You should know your topic  and have already done some preliminary research to find relevant sources , but now you need to shape your ideas into a structured argument.

Creating categories

Look over any information, quotes and ideas you’ve noted down from your research and consider the central point you want to make in the essay—this will be the basis of your thesis statement . Once you have an idea of your overall argument, you can begin to organize your material in a way that serves that argument.

Try to arrange your material into categories related to different aspects of your argument. If you’re writing about a literary text, you might group your ideas into themes; in a history essay, it might be several key trends or turning points from the period you’re discussing.

Three main themes or subjects is a common structure for essays. Depending on the length of the essay, you could split the themes into three body paragraphs, or three longer sections with several paragraphs covering each theme.

As you create the outline, look critically at your categories and points: Are any of them irrelevant or redundant? Make sure every topic you cover is clearly related to your thesis statement.

Order of information

When you have your material organized into several categories, consider what order they should appear in.

Your essay will always begin and end with an introduction and conclusion , but the organization of the body is up to you.

Consider these questions to order your material:

• Is there an obvious starting point for your argument?
• Is there one subject that provides an easy transition into another?
• Do some points need to be set up by discussing other points first?

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Within each paragraph, you’ll discuss a single idea related to your overall topic or argument, using several points of evidence or analysis to do so.

In your outline, you present these points as a few short numbered sentences or phrases.They can be split into sub-points when more detail is needed.

The template below shows how you might structure an outline for a five-paragraph essay.

• Thesis statement
• First piece of evidence
• Second piece of evidence
• Summary/synthesis
• Importance of topic
• Strong closing statement

You can choose whether to write your outline in full sentences or short phrases. Be consistent in your choice; don’t randomly write some points as full sentences and others as short phrases.

Examples of outlines for different types of essays are presented below: an argumentative, expository, and literary analysis essay.

Argumentative essay outline

This outline is for a short argumentative essay evaluating the internet’s impact on education. It uses short phrases to summarize each point.

Its body is split into three paragraphs, each presenting arguments about a different aspect of the internet’s effects on education.

• Importance of the internet
• Concerns about internet use
• Thesis statement: Internet use a net positive
• Data exploring this effect
• Analysis indicating it is overstated
• Students’ reading levels over time
• Why this data is questionable
• Video media
• Interactive media
• Speed and simplicity of online research
• Questions about reliability (transitioning into next topic)
• Evidence indicating its ubiquity
• Claims that it discourages engagement with academic writing
• Evidence that Wikipedia warns students not to cite it
• Argument that it introduces students to citation
• Summary of key points
• Value of digital education for students
• Need for optimism to embrace advantages of the internet

Expository essay outline

This is the outline for an expository essay describing how the invention of the printing press affected life and politics in Europe.

The paragraphs are still summarized in short phrases here, but individual points are described with full sentences.

• Claim that the printing press marks the end of the Middle Ages.
• Provide background on the low levels of literacy before the printing press.
• Present the thesis statement: The invention of the printing press increased circulation of information in Europe, paving the way for the Reformation.
• Discuss the very high levels of illiteracy in medieval Europe.
• Describe how literacy and thus knowledge and education were mainly the domain of religious and political elites.
• Indicate how this discouraged political and religious change.
• Describe the invention of the printing press in 1440 by Johannes Gutenberg.
• Show the implications of the new technology for book production.
• Describe the rapid spread of the technology and the printing of the Gutenberg Bible.
• Link to the Reformation.
• Discuss the trend for translating the Bible into vernacular languages during the years following the printing press’s invention.
• Describe Luther’s own translation of the Bible during the Reformation.
• Sketch out the large-scale effects the Reformation would have on religion and politics.
• Summarize the history described.
• Stress the significance of the printing press to the events of this period.

Literary analysis essay outline

The literary analysis essay outlined below discusses the role of theater in Jane Austen’s novel Mansfield Park .

The body of the essay is divided into three different themes, each of which is explored through examples from the book.

• Describe the theatricality of Austen’s works
• Outline the role theater plays in Mansfield Park
• Introduce the research question : How does Austen use theater to express the characters’ morality in Mansfield Park ?
• Discuss Austen’s depiction of the performance at the end of the first volume
• Discuss how Sir Bertram reacts to the acting scheme
• Introduce Austen’s use of stage direction–like details during dialogue
• Explore how these are deployed to show the characters’ self-absorption
• Discuss Austen’s description of Maria and Julia’s relationship as polite but affectionless
• Compare Mrs. Norris’s self-conceit as charitable despite her idleness
• Summarize the three themes: The acting scheme, stage directions, and the performance of morals
• Answer the research question
• Indicate areas for further study

If you want to know more about AI tools , college essays , or fallacies make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples or go directly to our tools!

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You will sometimes be asked to hand in an essay outline before you start writing your essay . Your supervisor wants to see that you have a clear idea of your structure so that writing will go smoothly.

Even when you do not have to hand it in, writing an essay outline is an important part of the writing process . It’s a good idea to write one (as informally as you like) to clarify your structure for yourself whenever you are working on an essay.

If you have to hand in your essay outline , you may be given specific guidelines stating whether you have to use full sentences. If you’re not sure, ask your supervisor.

When writing an essay outline for yourself, the choice is yours. Some students find it helpful to write out their ideas in full sentences, while others prefer to summarize them in short phrases.

You should try to follow your outline as you write your essay . However, if your ideas change or it becomes clear that your structure could be better, it’s okay to depart from your essay outline . Just make sure you know why you’re doing so.

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Caulfield, J. (2023, July 23). How to Write an Essay Outline | Guidelines & Examples. Scribbr. Retrieved April 1, 2024, from https://www.scribbr.com/academic-essay/essay-outline/

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