The term Gender-Identity/Role has been coined by the Dr. John Money, Emeritus Professor of Medical Psychology and behavioral sciences and of Pediatrics at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and School of Medicine. He chose to create this term to more accurately reflect in language the fact that the way that one conceives of oneself as a sexual being (one's gender identity) is expressed in living by language and other behaviors, clothing and other symbolic indications, and in general a wide variety of signs that one learns from one's culture (one's gender role).

One simple example of a traditional gender-identity/role would be the case of a female human being who, as an infant, learned to call herself a girl, learned to wear dresses, learned to cook and sew, and looked forward to the time when she would be an adult woman. As an adult woman she worked as a nursemaid, married, stayed at home, raised several children, and maintained the home environment for herself, her husband, and her children. She was responsible for cooking, washing, housekeeping, and virtually everything at home that did not require the strength of a man. Obviously, the role of a typical woman in modern American society is frequently much less limited than this role, which was more commonly observed in the nineteenth century and early twentieth century. The point is that for a society in which that kind of a life is understood to be a woman's role, anyone observed performing these activities would be judged to be living life as a woman. A male behaving in this way would be likely to be judged not to be fulfilling the expectations of the other members of the community.

Another simple example of a traditional gender-identity/role would be the case of a male who, as an infant, learned to call himself a boy, learned to wear trousers, learned to chop wood and drive the cows to pasture, and looked forward to becoming an adult man. As an adult man he took a job in a meat processing plant slaughtering cattle, married, worked hard all day and relaxed when he got home in the late afternoon, and occasionally helped around the house by putting on storm windows, shovelling snow, digging up part of the back yard to make a garden, etc. As with the previous example modern American society has changed, especially since World War II, and women now frequently wear trousers, work outside of the home, and expect that the men in their lives take an equal part in housework. But a woman who took a job killing cattle, who dressed in a man's suit and tie off the job, who smoked large cigars, and so forth, would probably be judged by many as not fulfilling community expectations, even today.

Gender identity is more inclusive than sexual identity. That is to say, the status of one's external genitalia is not the only factor determining whether one identifies oneself as a woman or as a man. For instance, a man who has lost his external genitalia in some accident will not necessarily for that reason cease to regard himself as a man. Sometimes, for other reasons, a person with external genitalia that appear to be female will have a male gender identity and will act this gender identity out in life using behavior that constitutes a male gender role. Similarly, an individual with external genitalia that appear to be male will have a female gender identity and will act out a female gender role. People who have been made by various social forces to act out a gender role that is not in accord with their gender identity frequently report acute emotional distress as a result. This discomfort is sometimes called gender dysphoria.