Women’s defenselessness functions as the legal title of their oppression

Evidence

This is not a unique situation. American blacks, partially integrated into a civilization that nevertheless considers them an inferior caste, live it; what Bigger Thomas experiences with so much bitterness at the dawn of his life is this definitive inferiority, this cursed alterity inscribed in the color of his skin: he watches planes pass and knows that because he is black the sky is out of bounds for him. Because she is woman, the girl knows that the sea and the poles, a thousand adventures, a thousand joys, are forbidden to her: she is born on the wrong side. The great difference is that the blacks endure their lot in revolt—no privilege compensates for its severity—while for the woman her complicity is invited. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714 (#expands, via linked claim)

The respect women grant to heroes and to the masculine world’s laws stems from their powerlessness and ignorance; they acknowledge these laws not through judgment but through an act of faith: faith draws its fanatical power from the fact that it is not knowledge: it is blind, passionate, stubborn, and stupid; what it puts forward is done unconditionally, against reason, against history, against all refutation. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1743 (#expands, via linked claim)

In no country is her legal status identical to man’s, and often it puts her at a considerable disadvantage. Even when her rights are recognized abstractly, long-standing habit keeps them from being concretely manifested in customs. Economically, men and women almost form two castes; all things being equal, the former have better jobs, higher wages, and greater chances to succeed than their new female competitors; they occupy many more places in industry, in politics, and so forth, and they hold the most important positions. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 57 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714; Female attempts to dominate men are defensive responses to imposed oppression — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1966; Women’s oppression derives from family and patrimony, not biological sex — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 190 (+7 more)

Broader Connections

• Women’s oppression is distinct because their complicity is solicited #expands (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 714
• Abstract legal recognition of rights fails to overturn women’s concrete economic inferiority #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 57
• Women’s reverence for masculine law stems from powerlessness rather than judgment #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1743
• Woman’s exclusion from men’s labor and thought, not her weakness, explains her oppression #contradicts (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 167
• Female attempts to dominate men are defensive responses to imposed oppression #qualifies (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1966
• Women’s oppression differs from class oppression because women share solidarity with their oppressors #expands (0.75) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 147
• Women’s oppression derives from family and patrimony, not biological sex #expands (0.72) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 190
• Women of color face simultaneous oppression based on race and gender #expands (0.70) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1145