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Interest in gender issues has blossomed in the last 10 to 15 years in part owing to the expanding role of women in all segments of society, but also because of women's increasing voices in response to dramatic social changes in the role of the family and the role of women. Ellyn Kaschak puts forth the point of view that gender shapes virtually every life experience of the newborn child. She maintains that every quality matters differently for a female and a male; that is, everything about oneself has a gendered and evaluated quality.
In the Introduction Kaschak reveals an intimate view of the development of her own thinking as a feminist and a psychologist. She relates her passage from traditional training through discoveries of the discrepancies between male psychological perspectives and female experiences. Although this is a scholarly book, it is also a book written by a dedicated feminist clinician whose personal voice is heard throughout her writing.
Gender identity is not seen as identical with anatomy. It appears, however, to be treated in this book as congruent with stereotypical gender arrangements. Social constructionists understand gender as being based on prevailing cultural categories and as developing in social interactions throughout one's life. Gender identification is largely a conscious sense of self in cultural terms.