De Beauvoir's “Woman as Other”

She states that `to pose woman is to pose then absolute Other' (821). `The other' is referred to women who are classified as being different to men even though both share a human body. Women are also not seen as `a subject, a fellow human being.'(821). This is caused by men who believe a myth of females through experiences of which Beauvoir states as feelings and thoughts, rather then the reality of women themselves. Men see women as what they think they see because of the way they feel about women. Men have opinions in ways of physical or knowledge of women. These opinions created are myths which men believe to be the true women. These men usually belong in the western patriarchal society. Men hold myths against women and "placed women beneath men and held them to be the property of men" (Guerrero). Being "placed beneath men" can show that women are treated unequally in a patriarchal society where they are not respected. This is the woman in a patriarch world.

When you think about women in the work field today, what do you see? A successful lawyer, a doctor, perhaps. That’s true. In fact, there have been more females holding high employment positions in the late 20th and 21st century than ever before. According to Donald M. Fisk in “Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2003”, 60% of working-age women worked in the labor force in 1999. That’s 41% more than that of 1900, where only 19% of women worked in the labor force. Among these women, a vast majority have seen their salaries sky-rocket in the past two decades, almost surpassing those of male workers. However, it is not always this way.

The United States exhibits the trend of the “feminization of poverty”, a powerful phrase coined by Diana Pierce to exhibit the increasing number of women and children in poverty. Among the causes of this problem is a “dual labor market that actively discriminates against female workers” (Leventman 1988: 197). The average American woman is only paid 77 cents to every working man’s dollar (Alter 2014). Men today make more than women, despite women having the same amount of educational achievement. In fact, in 2011, men with only a bachelor’s degree made more than women with graduate degrees (Alter 2014). In 2013, full-time working men made $50,033 compared to just $39,157 for full-time working women (Cook 2014). In America today, the problem of poverty in the lives of women and children is attributed to different aspects of gender stratification as well as gender inequality. Poverty will continue until women are equal to men in terms of power, wealth, and other

In modern america sexism is slowly diteriating, but it has not complitly disappeared. Women have worked hard to become astronaut, Ceos, presidentsdoctors and more, but even with these accomplishments women are still discriminated against. Women face a variety of stereotypes in the work place that prevent them from progress, some company's really think that women don't need equal pay because they are not the head of the house hold and their husbands paycheck should do the job. Other business corporations believe that women can not committed to a job because they are the primary caregiver of their children which causes companies to lose money every time there is an emergency. "The paradox is that the world of rigid and hierarchical sex roles

Throughout history women have not been given proper recognition for their insight in the field of psychology. They were simply labeled as “Other.” Simone de Beauvoir, philosopher examines the concepts of woman and in relation to the larger concepts of humanity. She concludes that women’s status is not simply a matter of definition, but a fundamental way of thinking that has political consequences. What is a Woman? This question may seem to be rudimentary, but when thought about women are the foundation for life. Women are more than their uterus, or an imperfect man. It was believed that women were made from man’s image, Adam and Eve.

Beauvoir is a French feminist icon who helped establish the idea of feminism not only in France, but all over the Western world. I believe Beauvoir’s opinions on the root causes of sexism can also, to an extent, be applied to the issues faced by all minority groups in a world dominated mostly by Protestant white men. To Beauvoir, they are all considered the “Other” by the majority, who are the “One”. The One does not define itself “without immediately setting

The earning gap between men and women is slowly closing in part because of women 's educational attainment. “Organizations run by women perform better, and not just a little bit,” she says. “The same thing goes for companies that have diverse leadership.” (Carter, 2013). The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects that most of the 30 fastest-growing occupations through 2020 are in female-dominated fields, such as health care, child care and education and as the baby boom generation ages, the need for home-health and personal-care aides is expected to grow by 70 percent by 2020, creating an estimated 1.3 million additional jobs for women. In conclusion, the article ends on a positive note. In spite of all the challenges that women face in the workforce, that ultimately they will not only continue persevere in their fight for equality, but excel in the coming decades.

Throughout history, discrimination in all forms has been an endless battle; whether it 's race, gender, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything else that makes one person different from another, it’s happening every day. One significant discrimination problem the world population is combating, takes place in the work field. Women, who are as equally trained and educated, and with the same experience as men are not getting equal pay, “The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns”(Coleman). This form of discrimination dates back for centuries and derives from the common stereotype that since men provide for women and women take care of the home and children, men consequently are more effective in the career chosen. In today’s world, the realization that man and woman can produce the same outcome, have the same education, and have the same capability to accomplish the same overall tasks as men is becoming more popular, especially as the idea of women not being as valuable as a man is being proven wrong.

Throughout the history of the world, discrimination in all forms has been a constant battle; whether its race, gender, religion, beliefs, appearance or anything else that makes one person different from another, it’s happening every day. One significant discrimination problem the world population is battling, takes place in the work place. Women, who are as equally trained and educated, and with the same experience as men are not getting equal pay, “The American Association of University Women is releasing a new study that shows when men and women attend the same kind of college, pick the same major and accept the same kind of job, on average, the woman will still earn 82 cents to every dollar that a man earns” (Coleman). This form of inequality dates back for centuries and stems from the common belief that since men provide for women and women take care of the home and children, men therefore are more efficient in the career chosen. This is also known as systemic discrimination. Now in modern times, the realization that man and woman can produce the same results, have the same education, and have the same capacity to accomplish the same overall tasks as men is becoming more popular, especially as the prevalent thought of women as not as valuable as men is constantly being proven to be incorrect.

De Beauvoir stated women, the second sex, as “the other”. Women were not seen as a woman, but seen as not man. This means that women notion derived from men, “… masculine virtue is thought of as true virtue, male occupations are thought of as real work…” (p.247). Hence, the definition of women was second, inessential, and less than. Women were the objects of male subjectivity, meaning they were only sex objects, mothers, objects of the male gaze, and the things looked at. Moreover, women do not follow the “existence precedes essence” rule. Women were born free but later have been told what her identity was; hence, they did not get to choose their ambitions or live freely, thus became inauthentic. Also, if men could not understand women, they

Just as Pygmalion sculpts Galatea, man sculpts the idea of woman. The consequence of this is that man perpetuates the idea of womanhood, and women obey it. Beauvoir encourages women to fight against this idea of womanhood, arguing that “To pose women is to [deny]… that she is a subject, a fellow human being” (De Beauvoir). Most people unfortunately do not fight back against this idea of womanhood, and remain passive to it.

In the first chapter Simone de Beauvoir discusses her beliefs on feminism. De Beauvoir emerged during the first wave of feminism and she believed that women were one hundred percent equal to men. She states, “He is the Subject, he is the Absolute she is the other” (Schneir 8). De Beauvoir implies that what makes a man masculine is all the qualities he possesses that a female is supposed to lack. Thus, she did not want to do anything that would make her fit into the category of “other”.

Simone de Beauvoir defines the lived experience of women as one of “otherness,” and from this stems the oppression of women. De Beauvoir explains the lived experiences of women when she states that “he is the Subject; he is the Absolute. She is the other.” The man constitutes himself at the “subject” and the “absolute,” both descriptors place complete emphasis and importance on the man, the women are only relevant in their existence as the “other.” Since women are presently regulated to the category of the other, “humanity is male, and man defines women, not in herself, but in relation to himself; she is not considered an autonomous being.” Without a form of autonomy women have no basis for understanding themselves as women. If women must identify themselves through men, there is no way to escape a society in which men are the center of society and women are merely peripheral beings that conflate themselves to the wills and wishes of the more relevant man.

Simone de Beauvoir’s is a feminist who believed that their were distinct differences of superiority between classes, race, gender and religion. Throughout her theories she uses the terms “self” and “others” to define the two distinctions and how coincide with one another. Being a feminist, de Beauvoir focus’ mainly on the notion of women throughout her readings. De Beauvoir observes that women are looked at as inferior, or the other, to men in society and believes that this needs to change.

The sex discrimination case against Wal-Mart, in which the U.S. Supreme Court handed an important victory to the retail chain on June 20, 2011, revives a longstanding debate: are disparities in the workplace due primarily to gender bias or to deep-rooted gender differences? The answer is anything but simple. Women make up nearly two-thirds of hourly workers at Wal-Mart but only one-third of management. The complaint argued that such disparities can be explained