Woman’s supposed intuition is prized because it asks nothing of man’s ego.

Evidence

Being the very substance of man’s poetic activities, woman is understandably his inspiration: the Muses are women. The Muse is the conduit between the creator and the natural springs he draws from. It is through woman’s spirit deeply connected to nature that man will explore the depths of silence and the fertile night. The Muse creates nothing on her own; she is a wise sibyl making herself the docile servant of a master. Even in concrete and practical spheres, her counsel will be useful. Man wishes to attain the goals he sets without the help of his peers, and he would find another man’s opinion inopportune; but he supposes that the woman speaks to him in the name of other values, in the name of a wisdom that he does not claim to have, more instinctive than his own, more immediately in accord with the real; these are the “intuitions” that Egeria uses to counsel and guide; he consults her without fear for his self-esteem as he consults the stars. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 397

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Beauvoir’s larger framework of woman as the inessential through whom man accesses the essential — echoes Hegel’s master-slave dialectic filtered through Sartre’s for-itself/in-itself. — connects to: Women’s skepticism of all principles stems from seeing male morality as a mystifying facade — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1757; Mystical revelation serves women’s own already-chosen aims rather than directing them — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1915; Lawrence makes woman valuable only as nourisher of male transcendence
• DEFINE: Defines the gendered division of wisdom: man’s objective, self-owning reason vs. woman’s instinctive, consultable ‘intuition’.

Broader Connections

• Women’s skepticism of all principles stems from seeing male morality as a mystifying facade #corroborates (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1757
• Mystical revelation serves women’s own already-chosen aims rather than directing them #corroborates (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1915