The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
In the chapter “Woman: Myth and Reality” of The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir argued that men had made women the “Other” in society by putting a false aura of “mystery” around them. She argued that men used this as an excuse not to understand women or their problems and not to help them, and that this stereotyping was always done in societies by the group higher in the hierarchy to the group lower in the hierarchy. She wrote that this also happened on the basis of other categories of identity, such as race, class, and religion. But she said that it was nowhere more true than with sex in which men stereotyped women and used it as an excuse to organize society into a patriarchy.
Hence one is not born a woman, but becomes one.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simone_de_Beauvoir
de Beauvoir was an amazing woman. I’m glad to see that you’re stretching out and reading her. If English is a second language for you, then it speaks highly of your commitment to learn. It’s a sad state that women today are still faced with many of the identity problems that she confronted. We’re still only one foot out of the kitchen and one foot still firmly planted there. There are some high profile examples and we all have women in our lives who have managed to break through the ‘glass ceiling’, but for the most part we are still payed less than men for the same work. Still expected to manage the home and the kids even while working full-time.
She had many things to say about society that are still relevant today.
Dear Hellen,
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate these kinds of comments, where people give their own opinion with an explanation. I agree with you. She was a remarkable woman for her time (and she is in that category of my posts).I agree that in modern western countries we have a lot of changes about that, but, if we want to have the whole picture about women today, or relationship between women and men, we have to go out from modern western countries. They are not the whole world… and this blog is dedicated to the whole world.
We have to build our opinion and knowledge not according to our environment or our own country, but in relation to the whole. I can see in my blog statistics that my blog is read by women outside of modern western countries also. So, this post (and also your comment) can be very useful for them, and maybe they will recognize something in this post what can help them to do something about their rights in their own countries. If they have opportunity only to read her book, that will be maybe enough for them to start to think on a different way and what is more important: to act.
In basic, we are all connected and we are all world citizens.
Ella
What do you want to say with this post? I don’t agree, she wrote that in 1950. A time that a woman took care of the family, didn’t had a job, abortion was a crime and divorce a sin. I admire her how she was fighting for her own opinion and freedom. She dare to say that she didn’t believe in god and that people are responsible for their own behavior. That is courage! I agree that there is still a lot to do about women rights but in the modern western world there is a lot changed last 50 years. Thanks to women and men like Simone.
Did you read her book La Cérémonie des adieux?