The article contains an overview of the main approaches to the study of the phenomenon of «gender identity» in modern scientific research. Biological determinism, which determined the essence of sex differences, in the twentieth century was replaced by the study of the social aspects of gender and sexuality. Considerable interest in the issue of gender identity has been observed in recent decades, which is confirmed by an increase in the number of publications placed in international citation databases. This led to the actualization of the study of gender identity. In modern social sciences, various areas of analysis of gender identity are distinguished (identity as a social role, as social capital, as the perception of one’s gender, etc.). The main areas of research on gender identity are related to the issues of clarifying the content of this phenomenon, including in connection with other aspects of personal identity; the formation and change of gender identity in the process of ontogenesis under the influence of various factors, where gender norms and stereotypes, ideas about the fulfillment of social roles by men and women within a certain culture are the main ones. The issues of transformation of gender identity under the influence of political, legal, and socio-cultural changes taking place in society are relevant in modern science. The concept of gender identity in the scientific literature is most closely related to such key topics as race and ethnicity, family, work, sex, religion, inequality. In accordance with this, this article is supposed to consider modern studies of gender identity in the selected thematic areas. As a result of the analysis, the authors of the review article outline promising directions for further research of this phenomenon: clarification of the content of the construct of gender identity; normative requirements for gender roles in various social communities; the problem of multiple and overlapping identities; the problem of the formation and change of gender identity in ontogenesis.