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Gender identity development arises within the context of early object relations development. The basic character structure, in terms of the inner world of self, object, and their dynamic interrelationship, and the integration of instinctual drive (of sexuality and aggression) within the self representation, is laid down in the earliest years. Later development may be shaped or limited by the underlying structure, and the idiosyncratic picture that ultimately emerges for each individual will be the outcome of complex forces. Nevertheless, the core identity, the sense of self, is laid down before the secondary elaboration of the postindividuation stages of development. For this reason the tasks of male development are far more formidable than those of the female child. And it is for this reason that nearly all gender identity disorders occur in males.
Kirkpatrick (1990) writes:
the deep, profound, and durable female core gender identity takes its immutability…. From psychological interaction during the first 18 months of life … Boys identity…. Like their morphology, may begin with feminine identity that is then driven by biological force, in addition to the psychological consequences of parental (gender) assignment, into a different masculine identity. The boy's masculine identity requires the intensity of male sexual drive and is confirmed by the penis, its sensation, its multiple functions, and erectile behavior. It is a secondary phenomenon and thus more fragile than the girl's gender identity. (p. 559)
The subsequent course of the core feminine identity of the girl, despite affective and attitudinal positions that develop in relation to it, will be relatively uninterrupted once established. The core feminine identity originates in the early object relations matrix,