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Simone de Beauvoir


The Second Sex


Sally Scholz traces the major currents of Simone de Beauvoir’s main work.


Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) was one of the twentieth century’s leading intellectuals, and
certainly its most famous feminist. Her book The Second Sex radically challenged political and
existential theory, but its most enduring impact is on how women understand themselves, their relationships,
their place in society, and the construction of gender.


De Beauvoir’s existential ethics holds freedom as a universal – meaning that each project
we undertake must either turn its back on freedom or open up freedom for ourselves and others. This requires
people to achieve freedom, yet our temptation is to actually shy away from the responsibilities
of our freedom, even to the point of wanting to be more like an object than a human being. Members of
oppressed groups have an even more difficult time of achieving freedom.


…