What is gender anyway?

I have crossed the gender divide. I am transgender. I have lived as a male, albeit always feeling on the fringe of what that means, and I’ve accepted that privilege without recognising it as such. Now I am female, I can only look around at my fellow female colleagues working in STEM that I can only sit amazed at how hard they have worked to get to their position. It has opened my eyes to the other areas of privilege I have – white – educated – the list goes on, but I can no longer sit and accept this privilege without using it for good. I stopped wearing my cloak as I transitioned as I didn’t want it to hide who I was in presenting as female, and love wearing dresses. To me it doesn’t matter whether it’s a dress, a cape or a cloak, and however important how you present yourself to the world is, more than anything it’s about how you use the privilege you have.