Question

Simone de Beauvoir once famously asserted that "one is not born a woman, but becomes one," to suggest that women are created by cultural forces. How might sociobiologists respond to this?

A) De Beauvoir does not account for the role of industrialization in creating the category of woman.B) De Beauvoir misses that what constitutes a woman is biological as well as cultural.C) De Beauvoir fails to show how the category of woman is purely an effect of economics.D) De Beauvoir is correct because our biology determines our culture.

Answer 1

The answer is: B. De Beauvoir misses that what constitutes a woman is biological as well as cultural.

Step-by-step explanation:

Sociobiology seeks to understand the biological basis of social behavior, rather than the neurological, cultural or psychological factors that influence it. It draws from the complex relationship between nature and nurture in human development.

Simone de Beauvoir's statement suggests that gender is a sociocultural construction with no biololgical basis. People learn how to be men or women in a particular time and social group through interaction with others, they are not born with this knowledge. Therefore, sociobologists might respond to De Beauvoir by saying that she misses that what constitutes gender is cultural but also biological and can be influenced by evolution and other biological processes.