I may be too emotional about this

True or false: On ne naît pas femme, on le devient (Simone de Beauvoir)?

I can hardly express how much I am irked by various claims about genetic/natural/innate differences between the thoughts, emotions, and behaviors of men and women. Like, the infamous Female Brain, for example, written incidentally by a woman. And an Ivy League-educated neuroscientist, at that. Which just goes to show that even the most prestigiously groomed academic can be incredibly biased and well, sexist, in her own quest and research.

From what I understand the author states all sorts of outrageous and untrue things: that women's brains are more emotional than men's, that women seek security in relationships while men seek only sex, and that ultimately, there is no hope to change men's nature, so we women better abandon our unrealistic hopes for an egalitarian lifestyle and leave those burly hunks of testosterone to high-five each other over boobs on TV.

Of course, there are some physiological differences between men and women. And there are also (sexist) values that we, while living in a patriarchic world, assign to certain potentially gender-based characteristics (e.g. forcefulness is superior to nurturance). These values may lead to thoughts and behaviors that are consistent with and perpetuate those values, that then affect our relationships and socialization, are internalized into our identities and ultimately show up in brain functioning. I tend to believe that these gender differences are a result of an interplay of neurological, sociological, developmental, existential, statistical factors.

And yes, when it comes to pondering the nature of people, I tend to blame look toward social influences, too, rather than purely genetic ones. This is my bias, and so I'd put myself on this side of the debate, one that dislikes the rigid claims that women are good at compromising and men are good at math. I just can't see how such a deterministic view could ever bring us closer to an equal and equally respecting world.