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 How many genders are there? The terms you need to know

Gender is so much more complex than just ‘men’ and ‘women’.

Articles of Interest

A Guide To Gender Identity Terms

Issues of equality and acceptance of transgender and nonbinary people — along with challenges to their rights — have become a major topic in the headlines. These issues can involve words and ideas and identities that are new to some. That's why we've put together a glossary of terms relating to gender identity. Our goal is to help people communicate accurately and respectfully with one another.

Beyond ‘He’ or ‘She’: The Changing Meaning of Gender and Sexuality

A growing number of young people are moving beyond the idea that we live in a world where sexuality and gender come in only two forms.

Gender identity needs to be based on objective evidence rather than feelings

If we abandon the testimony of experts, we may find ourselves at the mercy of whoever shouts loudest, writes Debbie Hayton, a trans teacher.

Gender identity, explained in an adorable infographic

The infographic explains how some people may identify beyond the expectations of society. Some identify with a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth, or as genderqueer, meaning they don't belong to any socially defined gender. Most people don't identify with only masculine or feminine qualities.

Gender Ideology Isn’t Kids’ Stuff

Psychologically and emotionally, most aren’t ready for it.

How Gen Z Changed Its Views On Gender

For Gen Z (those born 1995-2012), the whole concept of gender is more fluid. Not only can people be transgender, identifying with a gender different from their sex assigned at birth, but they can identify as neither male nor female (often called nonbinary, sometimes shortened to enby, the phonetic of N.B.; there’s also gender fluid, gender queer, demiboy, demigirl, and many other terms describing self-definitions of gender).

How Losing My Sight Helped Me Express My Gender Identity

With no mirrors to face I saw my beautiful inner self as a girl, a woman slowly pushing away the past.

I'm Pregnant, and I Don't Want to Force a Gender Identity on My Baby

My husband and I found out the sex of our child at 10 weeks by default. We took a blood test to rule out certain genetic illnesses and along with that, our doctor shared with us that we were having a little baby girl. I adore my ob-gyn—if she weren’t my doctor, I feel like we’d be friends—but throughout our meetings she keeps using the word “gender” when talking about our child’s sex, and it makes me painfully aware of the uphill battle I’m facing when it comes to establishing an open environment for my baby to figure out her identity on her own.

It's never too late to explore your gender identity. Here's how to start

Everyone has a gender — and we express it all the time. But if you're an adult starting to think about your gender in a more expansive way, NPR's Life Kit has tips on how to do that.

Lockdown Helped Me Recognise My Gender Identity

Being cut off from their support networks left many LGBTQ people feeling isolated. Others have found it unexpectedly liberating.

Myth #2: Sexual orientation is linked to gender identity

Equal rights battles and advocacy efforts have brought together gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and genderqueer people over the past several decades. But that doesn’t mean that the basis for these identities is the same — in fact, sexual orientation and gender identity are very different.

Myth #7: Children aren’t old enough to know their gender identity

Some children genuinely identify with a gender different from the one assigned to them at birth at a very early age. And some others won’t conform to gender norms — but won’t necessarily grow up to identify as transgender.

Neurobiology of gender identity and sexual orientation

Sexual identity and sexual orientation are independent components of a person’s sexual identity. These dimensions are most often in harmony with each other and with an individual’s genital sex, although not always.

There is a difference between biological sex and gender identity

For too long, language and statistics have blurred the lines between the two.

What to Teach Young Kids About Gender

For the foreseeable future, parents and educators will be grappling with this polarizing question: What, if anything, should prepubescent public-school students be taught about gender identity?

When do children develop their gender identity?

Gender is generally thought of as a stable trait: we are born male or female and we stay that way as we grow from small children to adults. It turns out that for young children, initial concepts about gender are quite flexible. In my own research, I’ve found that children don’t begin to notice and adopt gender-stereotyped behaviors (e.g., preferring colors like pink or blue) until the age of two or three. A few years later, their concept of gender becomes quite rigid, and although it becomes more relaxed by middle childhood, even adults have trouble going back to thinking about gender as something that’s flexible.