1, 3 - Sex, gender and de Beauvoir’s otherness
Why might a difference between bodies become a difference in people's opportunities? Content area 1 introduces the feminist distinction between sex and gender; content area 3 uses Simone de Beauvoir's account of becoming a woman and of otherness to explain how society creates unequal roles.
Sex, gender and social roles
Feminists distinguish biological differences from the meanings and expectations attached to them. In this specification, sex concerns biological differences between men and women, while gender concerns roles that society assigns to them. The distinction lets us question whether a social rule really follows from biology.
Gender stereotypes
General expectations about how people should behave because they are classified as men or women.
Pregnancy is a biological capacity. A rule that women should therefore do all childcare, avoid leadership and depend on a husband's income is a social prescription. The capacity does not logically establish that rule. Fathers, relatives and professional carers can care for children; leadership requires abilities that are not established simply by a person's sex. This does not make bodies irrelevant. It means that biological facts need to be distinguished from claims about what someone's whole life ought to be.
Socialisation is the process of learning a society's expectations. A girl repeatedly praised for being quiet and helpful may learn that assertiveness is unfeminine; a boy discouraged from showing care may learn that emotional distance is masculine. Families, schools, media and workplaces can reinforce these expectations. People can resist them, so socialisation is an influence rather than an automatic programme.
The political consequence is important. If a role is socially produced, education, institutions and expectations can change it. A lack of women in public office cannot simply be treated as proof that women are naturally unsuited to politics. We must investigate opportunities, expectations and barriers.
If you sit in 2027: Issue 3 already distinguishes sex from gender. Issue 4 makes the importance of this distinction in feminist analysis more explicit; the reasoning here applies to both.
De Beauvoir and becoming a woman
Simone de Beauvoir argues that the conventional feminine role is formed through lived experience and social expectations. Her argument in The Second Sex (1949), captured by the specification's phrase “one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman”, challenges the claim that a complete feminine personality is fixed at birth.
This is a claim about becoming the kind of woman society expects, rather than denying the existence of female bodies. Girls encounter expectations about appearance, obedience, marriage and motherhood. Those expectations shape which activities seem possible or respectable. A young person who learns that achievement matters less than being chosen by a husband may limit her ambitions before any employer formally rejects her.
Essentialism is the belief that biological factors significantly determine the different character and behaviour of men and women. An essentialist explanation might treat women's apparent passivity as evidence of a naturally passive female character. De Beauvoir asks whether institutions and upbringing have helped produce that behaviour. We should not use the result of unequal treatment to justify continuing the treatment.
Consider a school that encourages boys to debate and girls to support the organisers. If boys later speak more confidently, confidence is not independent evidence that only boys were naturally capable. Different practice and expectations offer an alternative explanation. This is an illustrative example of the logic, rather than a study establishing a measured effect.
Her view of human nature emphasises the capacity for projects and choice. Freedom, however, is exercised within social and material circumstances. Telling women to choose freely is inadequate if financial dependence and social disapproval narrow the choices available. Education and economic independence can therefore matter alongside a change in attitudes.
For de Beauvoir, an observed difference in behaviour needs explanation. It should not automatically be treated as a biological destiny.
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