Simone de Beauvoir:

Understanding the Second Sex

Rinzeen N.Bhutia
 The Second Sex
Woman as the second sex
The second sex derived from the first sex
Women in the position of the “other”
What does it mean to be an “other”?
I and the other
We and the other
 Traditional understanding of the
sexes
Male Female
Rationality Body
Culture Nature
Mind, soul Emotions
The role of men is to The role of women is
be father familias and to bear and rear
govern society children
 Women according to tradition
Women are “dangerous” in the public
sphere because they are “unprdictable” as
they are determined by their emotions
(Hegel)
Women should not to be allowed to take
part in politics
Women should keep silent in the church
(Apostle Paul)
 Traditional duality of the sexes
Sexual difference is understood to be based on
different anatomy of the sexes
The anatomy of women predestines them to fulfill
certain roles
Women are thus “essentially” different from men
 Essentialism about sexual
difference
Women´s essence = women have certain
attributes, all women and everywhere and at
all times
This is biological essentialism
According to it women have biological
basis that makes them cognitively and
morally different from men (less rational
and less morally accountable)
 Sexual difference
Men and women are different, biologically
Are they different psychologically, cognitively?
Perhaps not much more than men are different
from one another, just as women are different
from one another
 Essentialism
Has there been an essentialism about men?
According to Beauvoir not to the same degree as
about women
Men have been associated with being “human”.
The human is man. Woman has thus been
considered less than human in the history of our
culture
Men have been the measure according to which
women have been defined.
The woman is defined according to which she
lacks being a man (Aristotle)
 Sex and gender
Sex is biological sex
Gender has to do with the social, historical
determinates of the difference of men and
women
 Sex and Gender
This distinction is based on the idea of
social construction of the differences
between men and women
Beauvoir: “One is not born a woman, but
becomes a woman”
 Sexual difference
Sexual identity is nevertheless not only
 cultural (determined by culture)
social (produced by society)
discursive (produced by discourses)
volitional (free choice)
it also has a basis in the body
 The Second sex
It matters of what sex one is born
Men have better chances, have a better position of
power
Women have less power in politics, in society
Women are poorer (still women only one ca 3% -
5% of the wealth of the world)
Women are not as free as men, acc. to Beauvoir
It is because women have been defined as being
“other”, as being different
 Why a book about the second
sex?
Women have to define their situation
To be a woman is being in a certain position
Men have not had to define their position in
the same manner according to Beauvoir
A male is “man”
Woman is what deviates from being “man”
Therefore women have to define their
position anew
 First and second sex
Being the second sex implies that woman is
seen as “the sex”
Therefore emphasis on women’s body,
sexuality
The male is seen as the one, as “man” and
related to his cognitive capacities
The female is the other, the lesser
 The other
Why did women become the second sex and land
in the position of the other?
Beauvoir’s explanation
The division of consciousness in “self” and
“other”
Self defines itself by demarcating itself against an
other
Self has more power and can “other” the other
one, put him/her in the position of the other
Individuals and society do this (I and other, We
and others)
 I and other
Hegelian dilaectic of master and slave: the
struggle for power and recognition between
two individuals
The stronger one becomes “master”, the one
who looses the fight becomes the “other”
Not only women are in the position of the
other
Other minorities (Blacks in US, Jews etc.)
 System of opposites
Women are not a minority in the same manner as
for example Blacks in the US
Women have always been with men
Women do not have a common history like Blacks
and like Jews
Women have not formed themselves (acc. to
Beauvoir) as a group, like other minorities
It is now beginning, she claims
Women are beginning to refuse being the other
The situation of women in France
in the first half of the 20th
century
Acc. to Beauvoir women and blacks are seen as
they are more bodies, more animalic
The one who is insecure about his masculinity is
more arrogant towards women
The Second sex was published 1949
Women in France had recently gained the right to
vote
Abortion was illegal and even punished with death
in the first half of the 20th century
 Time for change
Men do not recognize women as equals
Attributes that have been associated with
women are considered less and even “dirty”
Time to change this
Beauvoir calls for mutual recognition and
respect
 Ethics of existencialism
Beauvoir is an existencialist
Main creed of existencialism: Man is free,
man always has a choice
Man has to decide about his/her life, take
responsibility for it
 Ethics of existencialism
Women have acc. to Beauvoir not been able to
exercise this freedom
Freedom = Transcendence, go beyond oneself
vs.
Immanence: To be stuck in a condition, not be
able to go beyond it
Women should get out of immanence, and use
their transcendence
 Beauvoir’s conclusion
Men and women should work together
Men and women should respect each other
as equal, although there are differences