Question

Amanda lives in the united states, where she grew up thinking and feeling like she is female. when she spent a semester abroad in india, she met several hijra students who thought of themselves as something between male and female. amanda had a lot of difficulty understanding the experiences of these hijra students, most likely because in the united states, gender identity is usually thought of as

Answer 1

In the United States, gender identity is usually thought of as binary, whereas in India it is a continuum.
According to this question, in the US, there are two genders - male and female, and you are either a man or a woman based on this distinction. Nowadays, this has changed, and there is a difference between gender and sex (one is chosen, and one is assigned at birth). In India, there are no such things - there are no clear dividing points.