The issue that I really want to know about, though, is how is our identity as a woman or man or whatever formed? How do we see the impact of our family context, our schooling, dealing with our biological make-up has shaped how we understand ourselves as female or male or whatever?

Personally, I grew up in a family with 2 parents, one of each gender, with 3 siblings all biologically related to each other. My father didn't fit the male gender stereotype of machismo etc. Also, he died young from a brain tumor, so my mum became a single parent in her late thirites and my teenage years were in a household whose major parental influence was female. I believe this is principally what has made me who I am, a person who I like being immensely, and is central to my view of myself as a man, where I don't feel like I fit very well (or indeed comfortably) into the male stereotypes or the male world, but treasure my (it seems, unusually large number of) friendships with men. Curiously I'm now married and daddy to 3 girls, and I consider my role as husband-father to these awesome women the greatest honour in my life.