I do think that the US presidential campaign last fall showed that the general public's ideas of gender were more deeply entrenched, and more deeply problematic, than I had ever really imagined. Forty years of feminism, it seems, has somehow smoothed over the surface manifestations of bias without affecting the deep issues in any significant way.

Race issues have made at least some clear progress in terms of attitude. It seems that people in the US, for instance, are much more open to looking for roots, being proud of their cultures, looking for their Native heritage, and dating interracially than they were, say, 20 years ago. The election of a black president is a huge accomplishment, even if we don't bat an eye at the fact that someone who is half black and half white is clearly considered black (and various associated hullabaloos). There are obviously still enormous issues to confront, e.g. the huge correlations of educational opportunities, economic stability, jail terms [to name a few] with race. But one feels a certain progress comparing the US for instance with France, which I feel is coming to these issues about 20-30 years later (remember the recent riots).

Still, I find it hard to imagine that America will elect a female president in the near future. And look at how Hillary's disappeared in her Secretary of State role -- they give her almost no press. We heard about Condoleeza every other day.

Margaret, you asked a much more general question and I don't mean to sidetrack it, but in case some particular thoughts are useful...

 "Id-entity" is a fluid concept, not reality or sculpted stone edifice but a fusion of past, present and future expectations moving through time in a wet morphing stream. That we feel and  relate to this non-solid artifice as if it were "me" is a deluded and misleading posture. What becomes of "me" as the days encounters carve off rough edges and produce subtle curves and niches in the surface of personality, will determine how people react to the "me" they see and hear. You are no more predictable to your self or others but for expectations that are reloaded and shot on the screen of your personal ongoing "cinema of the mind". We can and do capitalize on our inherent ability to morph with demands and assumptions based on the audience we appear to. What is most beneficial with an awareness of this is the willingness to accept and move with it as a vehicle of self-exploration, as in : "Why is my ego doing this or that and what are my true motives". Deeper ever deeper into the morass of self and motives til the abyss of emptiness is found at the bottomless well of self.