Question: Do you think that the concept of gender identity is in itself an important part of society or should it be done away with all together?

Aífe Hopkins-Doyle answered on 24 Nov 2021:

Hi Tom, good question. Social identities (including our gender identity) are import in helping people understand their place in the world. Our social identities give us a blueprint to who we are and how we should behave. That being said, not all social identities are equally important to everyone. For example, for some people “being a woman” is a very important part of who they see themselves as, whereas for other women their religious or national identity might be more important. Likewise, identities can be made more or less important depending on the context. For example, if the ratio of one group to another is imbalanced then you may notice your social identity more in that context. You may have been in situations yourself where you are the only boy and that becomes very obvious. I think it is probably unrealistic to say that we should do away with an identity category but instead we should think about how we can make those identities broader and more inclusive – therefore the expectations and norms of what it means to be a “man” or “woman” are more varied and inclusive of different ways in which you can “be” that gender identity. This also opens opportunities for us to include other genders that aren’t male or female such as non-binary people.