Marriage and career are structurally harder to combine for women than for men

Evidence

The nature of her eroticism and the difficulties of a free sexual life push the woman toward monogamy. Nonetheless, a liaison or marriage is far less easily reconciled with a career for her than for the man. The lover or husband may ask her to give up her career: she hesitates, like Colette’s Vagabond who ardently wishes to have a man’s warmth at her side but who dreads the conjugal shackles; if she gives in, she is once again a vassal; if she refuses, she condemns herself to a withering solitude. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1932

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Ch. 14’s developing argument and to Beauvoir’s broader immanence/transcendence framework — the vassal/solitude double-bind echoes her earlier account of woman’s divided situation. — connects to: Even independent women remain divided between career and feminine success, obstructing accomplishment — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 930; Economic helplessness drives young women to aggressively pursue marriage — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1126; Anticipated career sacrifice leads women to hesitate in committing to serious work (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Marriage makes woman contingent while man mediates her to the universe #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1196
• Implicit chivalric romantic ideals reduce women’s career and income ambitions #expands (0.82) — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 771
• Comparing men’s and women’s lived positions is meaningless because their situations differ fundamentally #complicates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1769