Women’s oppression derives from family and patrimony, not biological sex
Evidence
Since the cause of women’s oppression is found in the resolve to perpetuate the family and keep the patrimony intact, if she escapes the family, she escapes this total dependence as well; if society rejects the family by denying private property, woman’s condition improves considerably. Sparta, where community property prevailed, was the only city-state where the woman was treated almost as the equal of man. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 190
Categorization
- XREF: Connects to Engels’ The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State — the materialist account of women’s subordination with the rise of private property. — connects to: Women’s defenselessness functions as the legal title of their oppression; Patriarchy triumphed through men’s biological privilege, not accident or revolution — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 166; Woman’s exclusion from men’s labor and thought, not her weakness, explains her oppression — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 167 (+5 more)
- DEFINE: Establishes the causal mechanism: family/patrimony transmission, not biology, is the root of woman’s Otherness.
Broader Connections
- Womanhood is socially constructed, not biologically destined
#exemplifies(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 676 - Woman’s traits stem from her situation, not biology
#corroborates(0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1740