Women were never a caste but the absolute Other without reciprocity

Evidence

It has been pointed out that there were not at first free women whom the males then enslaved and that the sexual division has never founded a division into castes. Assimilating the woman to the slave is a mistake; among slaves there were women, but free women have always existed, that is, women invested with religious and social dignity: they accepted man’s sovereignty, and he did not feel threatened by a revolt that could transform him in turn into an object. Woman thus emerged as the inessential who never returned to the essential, as the absolute Other, without reciprocity. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 319

Categorization

• DEFINE: Distinguishes woman-as-Other from slave status; woman is the inessential who never attacks the essential.
• XREF: connects to: Even privileged Egyptian women never gained social equality with men — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 187; Woman is always defined as Other, never positively for herself — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 323; Woman’s infantilization results from never having emerged as a subject before others — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1742 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Woman is always defined as Other, never positively for herself #corroborates (0.95) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 323
• Between women, love achieves exact reciprocity of subject and object. #qualifies (0.85) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1054
• Woman’s infantilization results from never having emerged as a subject before others #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1742