In light of a post I just read that I'm going to blog about in a moment (I'm still moving, so I'm writing both of these on Friday... but at least I'm finally packed.) i Thought of an interesting experiment:

Take something you've written recently with a fair amount of character. The protagonist has a real 'feel' to them. Preferably something short - no more than a few thousand words. If you have a novel, then take the first chapter.

Now recraft it with the protagonist in the opposite gender. 

This is about more than just swapping pronouns. You'll have to really look at your character and reimagine how they'd "work" internally if they were the opposite gender. Fundamental aspects of how they handle things, how they think, how they react and what they want (or at least, the internal goals and reasons for what they want) would change.

This may mean fundamental aspects of the plot have to change. Go ahead, change them. Write a whole new story from this one change.

How does this affect your story? And perhaps more importantly, why did you chose the original gender in the first place? Is it because that gender suited the story you had in mind better, or because you felt uncomfortable writing the other gender? Or was it even a random choice? And has the change in gender strengthened your story or weakened it?