References 76Further reading 771 INTRODUCTION In this chapter, we are going to focus on an important dimension of identity, gender, and look at two significant claims about the way identity is constructed. First, we are going to investigate Kath Woodward’s claim in the previous chapter, that gender identities are shaped by many different factors: individual and collective; biological and social. We are going to suggest that gender illuminates the complex multiple origins and practices of identity very clearly, because it allows us to explore our capacity for agency, and the social and biological structures that constrain our freedom to choose our gender identities.