Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex I

Posted: Mon, Mar 2, 2026

Today

• Reading Beauvoir as a philosopher [20 min]
• Thinking through the argument on her own terms
• Questions on the first response paper [save 10 min]

The Question^®: What is a woman?

Two seemingly contradictory claims: p. 3

• If womanhood is in the uterus, how can it be “endangered”?

So maybe there are no women? p. 4

• The “American” view: We are all just human beings.
• Beauvoir: Denying reality won’t help liberate women.

Why do we worry so much more about defining womanhood than manhood? pp. 5–6

• Defining what it is to be a man is easy—“the man represents both the positive and the neuter.”
• Womanhood is the lack thereof—the “Other.”
• Womanhood is not only a social becoming but an unequal one.

How did women’s subordination to men come about? pp. 7–9

• Not numerical disadvantage.
• Is it not?
• “it did not happen”
• Did it not happen?
• A “biological given”? cf. p. 23
• Lesbians?
• Still, what gave men the advantage?

Biological data

Sex categories are organized around sexuality.

• But reproduction alone does not require a binary system of sex categorization.

Attempts to justify social difference/equality from biological difference/equality are misguided.

• Brain size example: pp. 44–48
• What matters is the meaning that we ascribe to biology.
• Womanhood is a response to a situation.

History

Women are stuck with biological reproduction.

• Men get to create values and meanings.
• A very surprising answer from Beuavior?