The Left Hand of Darkness (Hainish Cycle, #4)

by Ursula K. Le Guin

“Tell me, how does the other sex of your race differ from yours?” He looked startled and in fact my question rather startled me; kemmer brings out these spontaneities in one. We were both self-conscious. “I never thought of that,” he said. “You’ve never seen a woman.” He used his Terran-language word, which I knew. “I saw your pictures of them. The women looked like pregnant Gethenians, but with larger breasts. Do they differ much from your sex in mind behavior? Are they like a different species?” “No. Yes. No, of course not, not really. But the difference is very important. I suppose the most important thing, the heaviest single factor in one’s life, is whether one’s born male or female. In most societies it determines one’s expectations, activities, outlook, ethics, manners—almost everything. Vocabulary. Semiotic usages. Clothing. Even food. Women…women tend to eat less…. It’s extremely hard to separate the innate differences from the learned ones. Even where women participate equally with men in the society, they still after all do all the childbearing, and so most of the child-rearing….” “Equality is not the general rule, then? Are they mentally inferior?” “I don’t know. They don’t often seem to turn up mathematicians, or composers of music, or inventors, or abstract thinkers. But it isn’t that they’re stupid. Physically they’re less muscular, but a little more durable than men. Psychologically—” After he had stared a long time at the glowing stove, he shook his head. ...