Feminists fault psychoanalysis for not having considered the social influences upon women's development, particularly the phenomenon of penis envy. Until now psychoanalysis has derived female development essentially, and almost exclusively, from the psychic fate of the anatomical differences between the sexes. This hypothesis must be supplemented in the light of more recent findings. By means of several examples, it is shown that socially sanctioned child-rearing practices and parental role behaviour contribute to the development of penis envy and to culturally specific identifications in women. Freud drew attention to the efficacy of these components when he remarked on the significance of the prohibition against masturbation and of the inhibition of sexual curiosity as fundamental causes of certain behaviour patterns which have come to be regarded as typically feminine. The biological basis of penis envy must be questioned.