The now largely discredited notion that it is biology, specifically the instincts, that shape the relations between sexes and, more particularly, defines their respective social roles. Typically, this viewpoint would hold that because women are the childbearing sex they are naturally more âcaringâ and more inclined to want to stay at home and nurture children than men. The extension of this idea is that biology is itself a destiny, for example that women are destined to have children and that shapes their lives. Understandably, feminists have rejected this viewpoint, arguing instead that men and women are culturally conditioned to accept the traditional gender roles as normal. The first sustained attack on this position came from Mary Wollstonecraftâs A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792).