Beauvoir argued women become Other through history, not by nature

Evidence

In the introduction to Th e Second Sex, Beauvoir states that the category of otherness “is as primordial as consciousness itself” and has been an integral part of human thought from the dawn of civilization. Furthermore, claims the author, the category of alterity, or otherness existed prior to any division of the sexes. Th is is a crucial part of her argument concerning the situation of women in society. Women are not a priori the Other or the Slave fi gure; they have been historically constituted as Other. Implicitly following Hegel, she argues that to be Other or female is to be the “inessential consciousness” in contrast to the man who has set himself up as the “essential” or sovereign consciousness. — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 265

Categorization

• DEFINE: Captures Beauvoir’s central historical-constitution argument against any a priori reading of woman as Other.
• XREF: connects to: Beauvoir argued womanhood is socially constructed, not innate — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 669; Beauvoir saw women’s condition as bad faith lived all day long — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 682; Beauvoir holds that sexual difference gains meaning only within the social realm — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre: The Riddle of…, 109 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Beauvoir repurposes the Hegelian dialectic to analyze women’s historic oppression #expands (0.90) — Christine Daigle, Jacob Golomb (eds.), Beauvoir and Sartre, 262
• Historical insignificance caused women’s inferiority, not the reverse. #corroborates (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 289
• Beauvoir grounded existential freedom within gendered historical situations #expands (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 684