Woman is made by civilization, not nature or biology

Evidence

This would mean that today’s woman is nature’s creation; it must be repeated again that within the human collectivity nothing is natural, and woman, among others, is a product developed by civilization; the intervention of others in her destiny is originary: if this process were driven in another way, it would produce a very different result. Woman is defined neither by her hormones nor by mysterious instincts but by the way she grasps, through foreign consciousnesses, her body and her relation to the world; the abyss that separates adolescent girls from adolescent boys was purposely dug out from early infancy; later, it would be impossible to keep woman from being what she was made, and she will always trail this past behind her; if the weight of this past is accurately measured, it is obvious that her destiny is not fixed in eternity. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1976

Categorization

• DEFINE: Core Beauvoirian claim crystallizing that woman is ‘a product developed by civilization’ — the analytical heart of the book.
• XREF: Directly builds on the ‘One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman’ thesis from the Childhood chapter; resonates with existentialist situation concept against Sartre’s freedom. — connects to: Woman’s apparent naturalness is itself a product of history; Woman’s traits stem from her situation, not biology — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1740; Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675 (+8 more)
• DEEPTHINKING: The densest compressed statement of Beauvoir’s anti-essentialism — nothing natural in the human collectivity, originary intervention of others, destiny not fixed in eternity.

Broader Connections

• Womanhood is socially constructed, not biologically destined #corroborates (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 676
• Woman is a historical situation, not an immutable essence #corroborates (0.92) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 675
• Femininity is an artificial, inculcated product rather than a natural instinct #corroborates (0.90) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1037
• Desiring woman as transfigured nature drives men to make her artificial #expands (0.82) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 351
• Assimilating woman to mere nature is a prejudice, not a truth #corroborates (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 656
• A real woman is defined by accepting herself as Other, not by biology #responds-to (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 668
• Women’s present situation results from ancient traditions surviving in new economic conditions #qualifies (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 297