Cutting the knot is, as many feminists claim, perhaps the only way forward. Anthropologists, by contrast, see the problems as not political but scientific, concerned with the nature and interpretation of evidence. This evidence undermines notions of the universal subordination of women, and indeed of the existence of a universal category of 'women' which can be assumed to be the same in all societies. The range of socially constructed gender roles is diverse, often based on occupation rather than social activity. In agricultural societies the situation is often entirely different.
Some societies even create 'in-between' categories, or 'third genders'.
The eunuchs of India, for example, who are frequently invited to bring spiritual blessings at the birth of a baby, are often not perceived in terms of gender at all. Such categories challenge the idea of a universal opposition between female and male. Feminist theorists bypass or dismiss all such matters, as irrelevant to the main issue. They argue that the imposition of gender ideology is particularly oppressive to females, because the characteristics linked with femininity are usually negative and passive. Feminists argue that women's oppression is a result of men's categorization of women as an inferior class .