Examines research concerning the infant’s earliest gender-related categorical discriminations, the tacit knowledge displayed by the barely verbal child, and the acceleration of sex-typing as gender labels for boys and girls are acquired. The authors contend that infants at the end of their 1st yr have clearly begun the process of categorizing people according to sex, but that the step from recognizing or perceiving the sexes categorically to conscious awareness of this distinction is a large one. The child’s cognitive construction of gender schema is believed to be important, as are the attitudes, values, and affective valence attached to gender knowledge. It is argued that the child’s construction of gender must be studied in a social context, emphasizing cognition without losing sight of the whole child.