2012sc201_christopherjacobi

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Identify and assess the main strengths and weaknesses of

Simone de Beauvoir’s book, The Second Sex .

Christopher Jacobi

To some extent The Second Sex (1949) successfully conceptualises womanhood as a social

structure and offers a „strikingly original theory of female subjectivity under patriarchy‟ (Okely,

1986: 20). Beauvoir‟s1 statement that „one is not born a woman, but becomes one‟ (1949: 295)

draws attention at the difference between biological sex and gender; this distinction can be

used to explore the ways in which women have historically been oppressed in a male world2.

Beauvoir also develops the useful notion of women as Others and highlights the fact that women

are not one uniform group, but have specific needs with regards to resistance. Beauvoir does

not, however, develop a genuine non-discriminatory gender theory and incorporates some of

the same patriarchal assumptions she tries to criticize. Beauvoir‟s argument can be criticised

through attentiveness to historical and societal ambiguities. Ontologically, just being the Other

does not necessitate that one cannot develop one‟s own identity. Beauvoir could either have

celebrated women‟s positive and active roles in society or have offered a truly gender-free,

transcendent vision of equality. Butler and Fanon are employed to enlarge the realm of this

discussion in a structure-agency.approach.

A major achievement of The Second Sex is its conceptualisation of womanhood as a (repressive)

social institution in which gender is not a biological fact, but socially constructed. Biological sex

is not completely detached from gender, but it cannot be the only factor to explain

womanhood and the societal expectations of what it is means be a woman. Gender as a

structure is so powerful and prevalent that „whatever a woman says, or writes, or thinks, is less

important and less interesting than what she is‟ (Moi, 1990: 27). Beauvoir also stresses that „it is

natural for the female human being to make herself a feminine woman‟ (1949: 428). Since

women become the gender they have been forced into, Beauvoir engages in a structuralist way

of interpreting an individual not by his or her personality, but by the social condition her or she

represents. In this way, gender is a „fixed and preordained essence‟ (op. cit.: 60) into which one

is socialised. Nonetheless, Beauvoir also suggests that like all structures there is a certain

1 Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986), French, married to existentialist philosopher Jean Paul Sartre.2 Beauvoir succeeds in theorizing the oppression of women. The question whether women have actually

been oppressed in this way will be explored throughout the essay.



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tension between a “woman” and “womanhood” and she acknowledges this interplay to be

„sometimes in enmity, sometimes in amity, always in a state of tension‟ (op. cit.: 93). Even though

the agentic dimension of gender would have deserved more detailed attention, Beauvoir‟s

conceptualisation of gender as an institution represents a major achievement.

Beauvoir‟s explores the historical3 origin and the concomitant reification of the subordination

of women in a strategic way that supports her line of argument, but is not universally accurate.

Beauvoir (1949) states that at the beginning of civilization men, being physically more powerful

than women, were advantaged and that woman, in their reproductive function, were dependent

on men. According to Beauvoir, this initial power inequality has been exploited by „the human

[male] consciousness with an original aspiration to dominate the Other [women[„ (op. cit.: 52)

so that „society has always been male and political power has always been in the hands of men‟(op. cit.: 65). This, in turn, has led to various social developments which have disadvantaged

women on an institutional level. It is argued that over time marriage, motherhood, and

monogamy have been established as male shaped institutions4 that originated from the historical

power imbalance to „preserve male power‟ (op. cit.: 67). A weakness of The Second Sex is its

dismissal of „female glory in history‟ (Winegarten, 1988: 22) and Beauvoir‟s implicit acceptance

of male values. Accordingly, Beauvoir‟s (1949: 383) claim that „women have never set up female

values in opposition to male values‟ falsifies womanhood and female achievements, even though

these achievements might be private or tacit.

Another problematic aspect of Beauvoir‟s historical account is the presupposition that physical

strength was and continues to be a defining feature of civilization. Whereas it is apparent that a

strong male soldier might be superior to a female one in a physical battle, Beauvoir

underestimates the numerous ways in which women have influenced history, politics, the

economy and culture. One could criticize Beauvoir for accepting physical strength as an

important feature since this in itself is a patriarchal assumption and could be interpreted

differently. Rather than restating reasons for female oppression, Beauvoir could have focused

on the positive and influential roles women took in the course of civilization. Furthermore,

monogamy and marriage haven‟t always been globally prevalent5 and The Second Sex makes

general claims about these institutions even though they were culturally specific for a great part

3 History, of course, is his story and not her story.4 From this perspective, sexuality itself could be seen as repressive. 5 Gilbert Herdt (1984), for example, has researched Sambian tribes in which our western understandings

of sexuality and kinship are deeply challenged.



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of history. In sub-Saharan tribes until around 8000 B.C, for instance, women were more active

and possibly more powerful than men since they „travelled from one tribal village to the other,

choosing their mates and trading goods and knowledge‟ (Finkel, 2009: 1).

Similarly, Beauvoir‟s claim that women have been trapped in their reproductive functions is also

not entirely helpful in promoting women‟s equality. If all women were completely determined

by their reproductive function, Beauvoir would contradict her main paradigm that „one is not

born, but becomes a woman‟ (1949: 295). Since we learn that womanhood is a social

construction and not biologically determined, the reproductive role of women must partly

emerge from women themselves6: Many women actively embrace their reproductive biological

function and happily choose to become mothers and wives7. Arguing that every mother and

marriage is oppressed through male patriarchy strongly undermines the happiness and fulfilmentmany women find in exactly these roles. When Beauvoir describes male pressures on women

as „an absolute evil‟ (op. cit.: 274) she correctly notices that some women might experience

reproduction as subordination, but this might be a result of the general fact that all structures

always exert some pressures, Even men, who are arguably so required to act masculine and

strong, have to adapt to external pressures. This implies that the historical and societal

premises on which The Second Sex is built is not without ambiguities. Beauvoir‟s analysis of

reproduction as socialised subordination neglects the power women can still acquire voluntarily

in institutions like marriage and motherhood.

Judith Butler‟s exploration of the agentic aspects of gender demonstrates that true equality

would transcend gender dichotomies. Butler has argued that gender is choice and that „being a

woman is an active process of negotiation between the individual and the cultural norms with

which one has to deal‟ (1986: 29). Butler accepts Beauvoir‟s interpretation that biological sex

does not determine gender, but arrives at the wider realization that gender is never fixed per

se, but continuously renegotiated (Butler, 1986). Examples of this can readily be found in

popular culture8. In fact, male-female dualisms like female good-heartedness and female

emotional maturity are just as socially constructed as gender (op. cit.). Butler‟s (op. cit.: 29)

positive vision, therefore, is that „gender choice is empowering‟ and that we can resist the

6 If there was absolutely no agency in becoming a woman, one would in fact be born as a woman.7 The issue of „false consciousness‟ and a potential inability to recognize subordination will be addresses

later8 E.g. the effeminate metro-man, men staying at home taking care of the children and the household, the„tough business women‟, Madonna kissing Britney Spears at MTV Music Awards, the recent debate about

homosexual rights, transgender people claiming public space, butch lesbians.



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norms that are forced upon us. Butler (op. cit.: 30) also defines „gender as performance‟ and

shows how our social roles can often be acted out rather than innate. In this way, „all gender is

unnatural‟ (Fallaize, 1986: 9) and a critique of the subordination of one gender through the

other is less promising than a search for gender-freedom and openness.

Beauvoir‟s notion of „Women as Others‟ (1949: 296) offers a rich attempt to understand

women‟s experience of subordination, but still operates in a narrow ontological understanding

of the female-male gender dichotomy. According to The Second Sex, a woman is the Other since

„she is determined and differentiated with reference to man, not he with reference to her; she

is unessential as opposed to the essential. He is the Subject, he is the absolute: she is the Other ‟

(op. cit.: 16). The notion of Otherness thus builds on the reified subordination of women and

highlights that men have historically positioned themselves as the active and dominant group

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.Beauvoir (1949) claims that men possess the full truth and reality of existence in this world and

as such define humanity. If this was accurate, it would be interesting to note that even

seemingly empowering developments like Enlightenment values and rationality are less universal

than sometimes believed to be. One might also wonder if Beauvoir‟s understanding of equality

is shaped through male values and whether women might achieve truer equality by celebrating

positive difference.

The analytical tool of „Women as Others‟ (Beauvoir, 1949: 296) also illustrates the extent to

which gender inequalities might have been internalised in society. Beauvoir develops the original

idea that women face both „the conflict between species and individual‟ (op. cit.: 646). Whereas

Beauvoir‟s dismantling of tacit and powerful social structures proves genuine insight and should

thus be regarded as strength of The Second Sex , Beauvoir could have noted that men might also

have to adapt to their gender expectations. Most importantly, just being „The Other‟ does not

mean that one does not exist: Ontologically, The Second Sex underestimates that women, or

minority groups in general, can still develop their own identity, culture and spirit. If women

were to gain the very same characteristics that are associated with men, women would to

some extent cease to be women, but become copies of men.10 Truer equality might be found in

transcending gender dichotomies and strengthening positive difference between men and

9 This presupposition is in itself dubious.10 This is a philosophical argument and does certainly not mean that real-life economic equality between

women and men undermines women.



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women rather than making women become men11. Beauvoir‟s achievement, however, lies in her

original attempt of conceptualising gender dichotomies and subordination. The weakness of The

Second Sex is that Beauvoir‟s vision of equality does not exceed male values. Furthermore,

Beauvoir‟s ontological premise is not universally accurate.

The realization that women are not one universal group is a major achievement of The Second

Sex with internal validity and the potential to contribute to women‟s campaigns.12 According to

Beauvoir, „the very isolation to which women are condemned to precludes them from seeing

the generality of their situation‟ (1949: 64): Beauvoir highlights that women find themselves in

various different social settings and that they are, among other factors, dispersed by race, class,

education, nationality and location. This means that „a woman from the middle class often

shares more experiences and empathy to a man from her class than a working class woman‟ (op. cit.: 300) and explains „women‟s inability to demand recognition as subject, their refusal to

rebel‟ (op. cit.: 255). An equal- or civil right movement that neglects internal differences will be

less successful than it could be if it had incorporated Beauvoir‟s insights. Beauvoir‟s

understanding of the dispersion of women can be applied to other marginalised groups: The

movements emerging out of the Stonewall13 Riots, for instance, have heavily discriminated

against black homosexuals within their group and thereby undermined stronger political reach.

The politically strategic celebration of difference that The Second Sex partly lacks can be found

in Frantz Fanon‟s Black Skin, White Mask (1952) in which he explores black alienation and the

oppressor-oppressed identification. Fanon, like Beauvoir, is influenced by Sartre‟s

„existentialism‟14 (Lundgrin-Gothlin, 1996: 204), but differs in the way that he demands a

celebration of blackness as a crucial tool for change. For Fanon, racial equality is not

homogeneity, but an acceptance of diversity. This „negritude‟ (cited in Moi, 1990: 73) is the

„political and emotional foundation‟ for a future world in which race can become insignificant

(op. cit.: 73). Beauvoir, in contrast, undermines political change in „denying a specific feminitude‟

(op. cit.: 75). Whereas Fanon promotes the individual development and consciousness of the

minority group, Beauvoir can sometimes appear to be overly critical of womanhood.

Nonetheless, Beauvoir‟s does sometimes address this issue and states that „males find in woman

11 It should in Beauvoir‟s defence be noted that she partly discusses female values towards the end of

the two volume book.12 2nd wave feminism has greatly drawn on Beauvoir‟s work. 13 U.S. Gay rights movement in 1960s.14 „Existentialism is a loose philosophical label … that refers to the systematic investigation of the natureof human existence, giving priority to immediate experiences of aloneness, death, and moral

responsibility‟ (Scott & Marshall, 2005:205)



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more complicity than the oppressor usually find in the oppressed‟ (1949: 721). This, however,

does not actively help to promote equality and leaves a pessimistic undertone. Even though one

can understand Beauvoir‟s view that „the bond that unites her [woman] to her oppressor is not

comparable to any other‟ (op. cit.: 721), racial movements, which might have been slightly more

unified, but even more segregated, have achieved real success. Beauvoir is thus correct to see

patriarchy as an extremely embedded institution of social life, but should not underestimate the

agentic and collective potential for change.

Beauvoir‟s existentialist understanding of womanhood as „a process of becoming‟ proved to be

„novel at her time of writing‟ (Lundgrin-Gothlin, 1996: 31), but is not necessarily sustainable as a

vision for true gender-equality. Beauvoir‟s work represents a useful conceptualisation of female

subjectivity and can be used to uncover the false consciousness or rather seeming naturalness ofgender as well as the reification of gender roles in society. Beauvoir has enlarged on economic

determinism and added the new layer of gender inequality: Female Otherness is a deeply

embedded social force and women have not been able to transcend their reproductive role in

the same way as men. On one level, The Second Sex addresses „Mitsein‟15 (cited in Lundgrin-

Gothlin, 1996: 157) of female and male gender as a temporary step to equality, but universal

gender equality can only be found in „transcendence‟ (Felstiner, 1980: 252). This transcendence,

however, is currently ascribed to men and if women are not to recreate male achievements

then they should probably develop their own identity. Nonetheless, one must pay attention not

to „insidiously blame the victims of oppression for choosing their situation‟ (Le Doeuff , 2004:

34). One could argue that true success of The Second Sex would mean that it becomes obsolete,

i.e. that gender ceases to be a problematic aspect of society.

An overall weakness of The Second Sex is its tendency to overgeneralise. Even though Beauvoir

herself points out that women are not one single group, her „method of speaking universally for

all women has proved to be unsustainable‟ (Okely, 1986:19). Furthermore, Beauvoir could have

created multiple accounts of the experiences of womanhood and stressed positive and agentic

negotiations of the female gender. It has additionally been noted that Beauvoir has written from

a privileged16 perspective and that her capacity to speak for the individual needs of working

class women „remains doubtful‟ (op. cit.: 20). In fact, Beauvoir has been accused of elitism and

one could wonder whether The Second Sex has provided significant real-life support for

economically disadvantaged women in after-war France. Okely (op. cit.: 19) claims that Beauvoir

15 Translation of „Mitsein‟ (German): Peaceful living together 16 Privileged since highly educated, being an established intellectual, comparably wealthy, living in Paris.



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has engaged in „an anthropological village study of elite Paris of her [Beauvoir‟s] time‟. This

criticism might be overly strong, but the impossibility of writing with definite authority about all

cross-cultural and historical differences in a detailed manner is generally accurate and also

applies to Beauvoir. One should, however, appreciate that at the time of publication „global

inequalities between women‟ (op. cit.: 25) might not have been a major concern yet.

Gender inequality continues to be an important issue in our time and The Second Sex has

offered inspiring insights and foundational work for many feminist thinkers. During our recent

economic downturn (2008-10) the government has cut public sector jobs through their

austerity measures and women have been affected more severely than men17 (German, 2010).

This illustrates that even though more and more women are joining the workforce, they still

suffer from particular challenges and have not gained the same status as men.

In conclusion, the conceptualisation of gender as a social institution and the exploration of the

concomitant subordination women might face as Others is a major theoretical strength of The

Second Sex with significant political applicability. Beauvoir‟s emphasis that women are not one

unified group is evidence of genuine insight into the situation of women and can still provide

direction for equality movements today. The most apparent weakness of The Second Sex is its

overgeneralization of history and global diversity as well as an underlying incorporation of the

patriarchal rationality. If one appreciates the individual acting out of gender as seen in Butler‟s

work, one realizes that true gender equality or even freedom is not to be found in women‟s

assimilation of male strengths, but in a celebration of female difference or even gender

insignificance. Nonetheless, The Second Sex has impressively shown that to some extent „men

have always held the lot of women in their hands‟ (cited in Felstiner, 1980: 265) and thus laid

foundational work for political change and more egalitarian philosophical approaches.

17 According to German (2010), many women work in low-to mid-level public sector jobs like

administration or social work and whereas private sector jobs have also been destroyed, they are more

likely to return. As argued by Elshtain (1981), this can be traced back to the private/public distinctionwhich means that high status jobs are still defined as male [public]. Furthermore, in total more women

than men have lost their jobs. (Larry Elliott, 2011: 1)



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