The establishment of core gender identity in normal girls. II. How meanings are conveyed between parent and child in the first 3 years.

Observations of a normal female child from birth to 3 years are selected to illustrate some of the ways early gender identity is established. These and observations of other normal children suggest that meanings conveyed by parents and identification processes contribute to the establishment of significant beginnings of gender identity before the phallic period and before penis envy, castration anxiety, and the oedipal complex contribute their main influence.