 In the first chapter of The Second Sex Beauvoir reviews the data of biology. But she does so with a warning. Such data are not to be thought of as determining individual characteristics or social life. With that warning she goes on to describe what are claimed as biological characteristics of the female qua animal or organism which, in addition to differences in reproductive role, includes claims that “woman is weaker than man, she has less muscular strength, … can lift less heavy weights” (1949 [1982: 66]). She rehearses these “facts” while also declaring that “in themselves [such facts] have no significance” (1949 [1982: 66]). This is because “it is only in a human perspective that we can compare the female and the male of the human species”, and from this human perspective “the physiological facts … take on meaning, this meaning … dependent on a whole context” (1949 [1982: 66]). So, for example, in relation to “the burden imposed on women by her reproductive function … society alone is the arbiter” (1949 [1982: 67]).