Transvestism was pretty normal in Elizabethan theater and that was principally

because of the times. As the renaissance was the epoch after the Middle Ages,
society still had man as the dominant figure. Though this began to change during
the reign of Elizabeth I, who was a queen who brought prosperity to England; the
woman remained relegated and bound to the Protection of a man.
Acting was forbidden for women, and those who went around that profession were
considered prostitutes. Therefore, the female roles in the plays were taken by
young actors, as probably happened with Rosalind's role at the time.
Inside the play, transvestism is only a form of Protection that Rosalind adopts when
escaping to the forest with Celia since, as she says "what danger will it be to us
(Maids as we are) to travel forth so far? Beauty provoketh thieves sooner than
gold. (...) Because that I am more than common tall, that I did suit me all points like
a man".
However, Shakespeare represents in Rosalind the ideal of a noble, chaste and
delicate lady who also possesses "masculine" traits, such as her cunning, energy
and intelligence. These characteristics help her during her journey to achieve what
she dreamed the whole play, marry Orlando. Certainly, her final goal was that of
any lady of the time, but her development and the way in which she fulfilled it
shows us the way Shakespeare played with the gender roles of his time.
And he played not only with these gender roles but also with the connotation of the
name chosen by Rosalid for his masculine self. She says her name will be
Ganymede, and she probably chose it to accentuate the change in her life, since
Ganymede was a servant of the god Jupiter and she went from being the noble
daughter of a duke to a poor boy in the middle of the forest.
But besides this the name has also a homoerotic connotation, since Ganymede
was not only the servant of Jupiter but also his lover. The name within the play
could be a nod to the relationship between Orlando and Rosalid disguised as
Ganymede.