Simone De Beauvoir Research Paper

The fight against sexism is not a new fight. Women have been fighting for equal rights, as well as fighting for their lives, culture, and values to be just as important as men's. On August 18, 1920, women were granted the right to vote; but this was only the beginning. From then to now, the role of women in society has significantly changed due to women standing up for their rights at protests and rallies, as well as on social media. While “The Good Wife’s Guide” focused on the promotion of the traditional gender role of women and defined appropriate emotions for women, “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, represents the start of the resistance of the traditional gender role of women that we see in society today.

Simone de Beauvoir is one of the founders of second wave feminism. Her book titled The Second Sex, published in 1949 is often referred to as one of the critical texts of the movement. The second wave of feminism began in the 1960s and continued until the third wave of feminism which began in the 1990s. While the first wave of feminism was concerned with women’s suffrage and opportunities for women, the second wave of feminism was more concerned with sexuality and reproductive rights. De Beauvoir believes that it is through the meeting of multiple consciousness that make women subordinate in any given patriarchal society. Through her idea of the meeting of the two, binary constricted consciousnesses, a coherent argument is made on how oppression functioned during the second wave of feminism and how it continues to function in today’s society. Her book also demonstrates the ways in which second wave feminism fails in today’s society, and why third wave feminism is necessary

Major Claim: The objectification and “currency” of a women’s body is the pivotal focus for the readings presented in class. It is discussed in the readings about how women are only considered for their looks, and not their personal depth or knowledge. Additionally, intersectionality is observed and how these objectifications effect marginalized groups. Finally, the term of enlightened sexism is introduced and how this concept is dangerous to and reverses feminism.

Throughout history, women have been abused, controlled, and belittled by men. Even today there are some subtle differences seen between a man and a woman’s standing, such as pay salary, job promotions, and physical and mental state. Modern feminism tries to solve these types of issues, but typically this only stirs the pot and creates more of a problem than any of it is worth. Lately, modern feminists over exaggerate dilemmas in the country and complain about things that in no way compare to the struggles of the oppressed women in past, specifically in the 1890s to the 1960s, and this is why it is no longer needed in society. Some of the major battles that women faced during this time period can be seen in the book Their Eyes were Watching

There are two major female authors in science fiction , Octavia Butler and Ursula K. Le Guin, that have impacted the ideas of feminism without being fully aware of their actions. In addition to these authors, a women named Simone de Beauvior had a large impact on the second feminism wave despite the fact that her influential work had been published two decades before the second wave. This is an evident pattern for these three women, even though they did not have the intention to write influential feminist work, they did so successfully. One of the most impacting ideas came from De Beauvior, who uses the terms the One and the Other to define the overall problem; the One being the ruling group, or men at this time and the Other consisting of the group being ruled, who were women. This very setup is used powerfully, especially science fiction writing. In this essay, science fiction stories consisting of these ideas will be analyzed. First, a story of how women were defined, to prove the problem occurring during the second wave of feminism. Then, move to the two authors who influenced the second wave without being aware of the effects their story would have on society.

I seek to explore the female roles in both works while also exposing some of Marie de France’s shortcomings in producing a full-fledged feminist piece.

While the piece is somewhat outdated, it continues to bring about important points and issues about women, such as a double standard among the sexes. It is important that this piece is still shared to show how much progress has been made and still needs to be made. While at one point in history it was common to see people ignoring or overlooking women’s rights, today’s society has the ability to platform its arguments in ways never before used. Social media, for example, has become a large part in spreading the need for feminism, allowing powerful celebrities and ordinary, everyday people to express the need for change in the world. Quindlen shares with readers how society needs not to fear words, but rather fear the consequences that can result from not taking social action. Quindlen’s piece succeeds in diminishing the daunting or intimidating fear that is the

Feminism is one of the most controversial topics in modern society today. Even though not everything feminism promotes is right, there are undeniable problems with gender inequality not just in the United States but also all over the world. Women’s portrayal in the media, advertisements and literature works has been something that feminists are trying to change. They also suffer from incomprehensible treatments at work, at home or just about anywhere.

Inequality between the sexes is evident. Throughout history, many events took place with the aim to expand women’s rights. These events, as well as the ideologies involving inequality, create the feminist movements. In retrospect, many rights have been granted for women since the rise of the notion of gender imbalance. However—many issues involving the advocacy for women’s rights and the thinking behind it still exist today.

De Beauvoir’s Argument In Simone de Beauvoir’s The Making of a Woman (an excerpt from her more famous work, The Second Sex), she argues that the classically “feminine” woman develops not as a consequence of choice or biology, but as a result of societal conditioning starting from a very young age. Furthermore, de Beauvoir explores the various sources of this sociological conditioning (e.g. mothers, female relatives, literature, historical texts, etc.) and explains how the concept of femininity, when compared to masculinity, paints women as the inferior gender and consequently justifies patriarchal behavior. Existentialist Component to Womanhood As Simone de Beauvoir was an existentialist, it would be inappropriate to discuss her ideas concerning femininity without examining them from an existentialist perspective.

In a statistic released by the United Nations, it was discovered that, “while forming more than one-half of the world’s population, women work two-thirds of the world’s working hours, own one-tenth of the world’s wealth and one-hundredth of the world’s land, and form two-thirds of the world’s illiterate people … Over three-fourths of starving people are women with their dependent children” (Johnson, p. 26). While this statistic may be shocking, it is part of a battle that women have been fighting for centuries. Women have consistently been the target of sexism. But what, exactly, is sexism? Margaret Farley posits sexism “is ‘belief that persons are superior or inferior to one another on the basis of their sex. It includes, however, attitudes, value systems, and social patterns which express or support this belief’” (Johnson, p. 23). How can women fight back against a concept such as this that has been deeply engrained within society? Many suggest fighting for equal rights in specific aspects of one’s life (such as equal pay), but these actions are worthless if the system itself cannot be made equal. Therefore, in order to solve the problem of sexism, the entire social system that allows for the devaluation of another being based on

In the last twenty years women have gained greater equality in many areas. Women are now accepted in politics and the corporate world. Men, for thousands of years, filled the role of the protector and care provider, but as civilization developed, men never made room for women. In most cases of power and leadership of large groups of people males held the most important of positions. Simone De Beauvoir wrote about the same issue in the nineteen fifties that many people are still discussing today. Women had their place, they were to take care of the children, and they are to be married and having children as soon as possible. For millennia that was the place of women. Recently however, women have gained freedoms and respect in a world of men. There are women working next to men as Chief Executive Officers (CEO’s) and

Alexandre de Beauharnais was born on May 28, 1760. He was the first husband of Joséphine Tascher de La Pagerie as of 1779, and the grandfather of Napoleon III, a distinguished figure during the French Revolution. Alexandre was also a father to Eugéne de Beauharnais and Hortense, who later was the mother of Napoleon III and the queen of Holland.

From 1848 to 1920, the women’s rights movement demonstrated the first true act of feminism, founded by a group of women rights activists to combat against women’s suffrage in the United States. By the 1960’s radical feminists also known as the woman’s liberation movement once again took up the fight for equality amongst men and woman, yet by the late 1990’s early 2000’s it had begun to change, losing its primary focus of fighting for a woman’s right, and becoming a burden on women today. The blowback from feminism has left todays women to suffer the consequences, as they now find themselves struggling more than ever to keep finical stability, keep a family, and get treated with respect.

The battle for women’s rights has waged for a long time and continues even to this day. Although we have made significant progress in the advancement of women’s rights including being able to vote and work to support themselves, it was not always like this, and the farther back we go in history the more and more women were oppressed. In the old days it was quite uncommon for women to be anything other than a wife or nun. This is shown quite clearly in both Memoir of a Basque Lieutenant Nun: Transvestite in the New World and Candide. While not the main topic of either book, the authors offer insight on what life was like as a woman in Spain and France, respectively. Both authors disagree with women’s place in society and subtly criticize it throughout the text. In Memoir of a Basque Lieutenant Nun: Transvestite in the New World, Catalina De Erauso is born a woman and seems headed for the life of a nun living in a convent, however, she disagrees with this lifestyle and instead opts to cross dress, which is illegal at the time, and conceal her identity for most of her life to live as a man. In Candide, Voltaire writes about women getting raped, used as sex slaves, and having to try and marry into wealth to ensure a good life for themselves as they have little to no other options. Although set about a century apart, these two texts do not suggest a change in women’s status or role in society over time, in fact, they offer similar, but different, analysis on women’s roles