An 18th-century polemic denied women immortal souls because they exist only to serve men.

Evidence

Queens and regents have that rare good fortune: their sovereignty exalts them above their sex … Queens, by divine right, and saints, by their shining virtues, are assured of support in the society that allows them to be men’s equal. Of others, a silent modesty is required. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 219 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Paradoxically, it was Christianity that was to proclaim the equality of man and woman on a certain level. Christianity detests the flesh in her; if she rejects the flesh, she is, like him, a creature of God, redeemed by the Savior: here she can take her place beside males, among those souls guaranteed celestial happiness. Men and women are God’s servants, almost as asexual as the angels, who, together with the help of grace, reject earth’s temptations. If she agrees to renounce her animality, woman, from the very fact that she incarnated sin, will also be the most radiant incarnation of the triumph of the elect who have conquered sin. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Christianity granted women equality only by denying their flesh — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367; Only sovereignty or sanctity could lift women above their sex in medieval society. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 219

Broader Connections

• Only sovereignty or sanctity could lift women above their sex in medieval society. #exemplifies (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 219
• Christianity granted women equality only by denying their flesh #complicates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 367