Reexamining Gender Issues in Erikson's Stages of Identity and Intimacy

A number of writers have argued that Erikson's stages of identity and intimacy do not address the experience of women accurately. Several have argued that in women these stages are reversed or fused. This article contends that such claims come out of a serious misreading of Erikson's work and shows that the stages as they stand are not incompatible with the idea that there are relational components of identity formation. New directions for feminist reinterpretations of Erikson's work and for research that reflects his theory more accurately are discussed.