Belonging and a sense of group agreement can help to reinforce the creation of specific aspects of male or female identity. The more your identity is given credence and validated by the agreement of others, the more secure your chosen way of life will be. If you remember that identity is defined more by what you are not, your choices in life are influenced by what your perception of being a male or a female is or is not.

If it is the understanding of a young girl that women are less intelligent than men, she is likely to make decisions that will influence the way in which she perceives herself in comparison to men. She will very likely feel that she is less intelligent. A different girl may have a different perception of women's intelligence than this girl does. The other girl may perceive that women and men are equally intelligent and thus make differing decisions about her own intellectual skills.

The reality of the lives of the men and women around her has little impact on the girl's perception, it is what she makes of that reality that will determine how she herself will be. It is her perception that will define her chosen identity...