The Second Sex
by Simone De Beauvoir
Launch pad created by Erin Cook and Gabriel Stein-Bodenheimer
Photograph: Sipa Press/Rex Features
Biography
Simone De Beauvoir was a French philosopher and intellectual. She and Jean-Paul Sartre
were at the center of the French Existential movement of the mid-twentieth century. Antiestablishment, anti-bourgeois the French Existentialist and their bohemian lifestyle became
as famous, or infamous, as their philosophy. De Beauvoir and Sartre maintained a lifelong
“essential” partnership over the course of their lives, despite having multiple “inessential”
romantic attachments. De Beauvoir was an integral member of the French Resistance
during World War II. De Beauvoir's major philosophical works include: The Second Sex,
Ethics of Ambiguity, and The Coming of Age. De Beauvoir also wrote many critically
acclaimed novels, largely drawing on her personal experiences as a member of the French
resistance, the cafe life of the French Existentialists, and death and dying.
In The Second Sex De Beauvoir is responding to Sartre's major philosophical work, Being
and Nothingness. Sartre falls short in that he doesn't take into account the subjectivity of
women. De Beauvoir uses the existential framework to describe the social constructedness
of gender and the oppression of women. The Second Sex originally translated in 1958 by a
Smith College Biology Professor who did not bring to the fore the integral existentialist
perspective that De Beauvoir brought to her study. The new translation in English, restored
the full text and included the philosophical framework that De Beauvoir uses to bring a
revolutionary way of understanding of “the female problem.” De Beauvoir work is radical
not only because she addresses the complicated issues of women, femininity and gender in
society, but that she applies the ideas of existential philosophy to a social issue.
Questions for Discussion (Note that the headings refer to those in the book)
Part One:
Introduction
The first sentence of De Beauvoir’s works states “I hesitated a long time before writing a
book on woman.” It illustrates the complexity and fraught nature of writing about women
and the issue of feminisms. Despite the ambivalence and ambiguity these issues incur De
Beauvoir writes a dense, richly researched, work on woman. In the introduction De
Beauvoir's starting place is to pose the question “What is a woman?” (5). Woman stands
apart from man and De Beauvoir's introduction provides the theoretical framework that de
Beauvoir will use to discuss the largely insidious, yet pervasive view of woman and her
place in the world.
Questions:
1. What is De Beauvoir's response to her question, “What is a woman”?
2. What is De Beauvoir’s concept of the “other”? How and why does woman fall into this
category?
3. How and why is woman complicit in embodying the concept of the other?
4. De Beauvoir's introduction acknowledges other groups that have been marginalized
throughout history. Why is this significant? What are the implications of De Beauvoir's
claims? How does this strengthen De Beauvoir's work and further validate the application
of existentialist philosophy to larger social issues?
Myths
In this chapter De Beauvoir relies on a thoroughly researched, often anthropological study
of culture and customs. De Beauvoir provides an extensive overview of myths that have
constituted and help solidify the concept, or the myth, of woman.
Questions:
1. What is one prevailing myth of woman de Beauvoir discusses in this chapter?
2. What is the myth of the “eternal feminine”?
3. What is the function of these myths? Are there some of these myths, or remnants of
these myths, that persist today?
4. How can myths about women account for the misogyny, sexism, and ageism pervasive
in American culture?
Part Two:
The Independent Woman
This section comes before the conclusion in the book. It offers a vision of "The Independent
Woman", a feminist existentialist analysis of women's potential to achieve equality, and
more than that, an analysis of the difficulties of such an endeavor.
Questions
1. DeBeauvoir suggests at the start of this chapter that "work alone can guarantee her
concrete freedom" (721)? What does she mean by this and what evidence does
DeBeauvoir give to support this claim?
2. What are some ways that the independent woman, working in a man's world and
maintaining the femininity expected of her, exhausts herself?
3. De Beauvoir notes that while "the man barely has to care about his clothes"(724), "the
woman, on the other hand, knows that when people look at her, they do to distinguish her
from her appearance" (724). Has this double standard for women and men's appearance
changed between 1949, when The Second Sex was written, and the present? Give
examples from your life to support your answer.
4. De Beauvoir analysis presupposes that hetereosexual relationships play the central role
in defining women's identity. What "concrete difficulties" (730) complicate dating for the
Independent Woman? Why does "being an autonomous activity contradict her femininity"
(725)?
5. What roles do men play in creating and stifling the Independent Woman when Beauvoir's
claim that "he considers the bed the terrain for asserting his aggressive superiority" (730)?
6. Describe De Beauvoir's critique of motherhood on pages 735-736?
7. Pages 737-741: How does education contribute to gender oppression and social
expectations?
8. Pages 742-751: De Beauvoir claims that "As long as she still has to fight to become a
human being, she cannot be a creator" (750). What is the situation of the woman writer or
artist? How does de Beauvoir connect gender oppression and women's creative work?
(Extension Activity: compare this passage with Woolf's A Room of One's Own--what
similarities and differences exist between these two foundational texts? How does De
Beauvoir's analysis of the situation of women writers differ from Woolf's)
Conclusion
Issues for further consideration/Essay Topics
1. In summing up her work, how does de Beauvoir define women and men? What previous
historical definitions of woman does de Beauvoir throw out? What remains?
2. Test your understanding: In existentialist terms, what is the meaning of De Beauvoir's
claim "oppression is explained by the tendency of the existent to flee from himself by
alienating himself in the other that he oppresses for that purpose" (756)? Who is the
"existent" and who is "the other"? What explanation does de Beauvoir give to explain
gender oppression?
3. How are men "in bad faith" (757) in their relationships with women?
4. What is de Beauvoir's vision of a society free of gender oppression (763-766)? What
obstacles does she see to achieving this vision? What do you think of her conclusions?
5. De Beauvoir states (the now famous lines) “One is not born, but rather becomes woman”
(283). What does this mean? What are the implications and the issues that are raised by
this statement?
6. How do the existential concepts of immanence and transcendence aid in understanding
the oppression of woman? Why are these existential terms/concepts work well in
understanding and discussing gender oppression?
7. How does gender idnetity and opression aid both sexises with coping with the Existential
concept of freedom (specifically the fear of freedom)?
For more information about De Beauvoir’s life, visit
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy – De Beauvoir
http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2010/entries/beauvoir/