Gender‐Role Preference, Gender Identity, and Gender Socialization among Contemporary Inuit Youth

The acquisition of an appropriate gender identity is a crucial process in human psychosocial development. As the child enters puberty, especially, he or she undergoes significant physical and hormonal changes leading to greater sexual differentiation and, hence, a reinforcement of a sense of self as being either male or female. This physical maturational process, universal to the human species, is complemented by changing social expectations exerted upon the individual by other members of the society. While the nature of these expectations may vary in form and content, the acquisition of an appropriate gender identity (and its associated roles) is undeniably a result of the interaction between both external (cultural) and internal (physical maturational) forces. Gender identity and gender-role socialization have been widely studied by psychologists, sociologists, and other students of human development. Generally, such investigations have concentrated upon these phenomena within the context of Western, industrialized societies. While contributing a great deal to our knowledge of gender, these studies have limited applicability to other societies,