In 1929, de Beauvoir met Jean-Paul Sartre and studied with him for the
agrégationin philosophy (which he had failed the previous year). After both
passed the examination with high honors, she agreed to a “two-year lease”
relationship with Sartre. During this period, she was an assistant at a lycée in
Paris. In 1931, de Beauvoir accepted a full-time position at a lycée in Marseille
and a year later moved to nearby Rouen. Though Sartre took a similar position at
a lycée in Le Havre, on the opposite side of the country, their relationship contin-
ued. In fact, their “two-year lease” became a lifelong companionship, though they
never married and were free to have “contingent” relationships.
By 1936, de Beauvoir was back in her beloved Montparnasse, Paris. For the
next eight years, she taught at various lycées in Paris until the involvement of a
student in her unusual lifestyle led to charges of corrupting a minor, and she was
suspended. Though reinstated, she resigned in 1944 and supported herself for the
rest of her life by her writings. Her first novel,She Came to Stay, was published
that year to critical acclaim and financial success. She was heralded (with Albert
Camus and Sartre) as one of the leaders of the new existentialist movement. The
following year, with Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Sartre, she founded the influen-
tial journal Les Temps modernesand served as an editor and contributor to the
magazine.
In her later years, de Beauvoir became increasingly involved in political
issues. With Sartre, she visited Cuba, attended the International War Crimes
Tribunal on U.S. War Crimes in Vietnam, and joined the student demonstrations
at the Sorbonne. On her own, she worked vigorously for feminist issues such as
legalized abortion and care for unmarried mothers. While leading the involved
life of a left-wing political activist, de Beauvoir published a total of five novels,
two collections of stories, and a play. She also published five volumes of mem-
oirs, giving a picture of France in the twentieth century and of her relationship to
Sartre. But de Beauvoir is best known for her philosophical works, especially the
groundbreaking feminist text The Second Sex(1949).
The Second Sexis actually two separate volumes united around the question,
“What is woman?” The first section, entitled “Facts and Myths,” explores
biology, psychology, sociology, history, myth, and literature to explain the
answers given to this basic question. The second section, “Woman’s Life Today,”
focuses on women’s various roles and explores ways to move beyond these roles.
In the introduction to the work, reprinted here in the H.M. Parshley translation,
de Beauvoir presents the basic categories that will guide her exploration of what
it means to be woman. According to de Beauvoir, woman is the “second sex”
because she is defined by man. Borrowing terminology from Sartre, she claims,
“He is the Subject, he is the Absolute—she is the Other.” Man sets himself up as
the standard, the “One”—the definition of what it is to be human—so that
immediately woman becomes the “Other.” As the “Other,” woman is relegated to
existence as “en-soi”: a being-in-itself, an object. Woman is not able to exist as
“pour-soi,” a being-for-itself. She cannot choose her existence because her role is
already defined for her as the “Other.”
De Beauvoir goes on to ask why women allow this to happen: “Why is it that
women do not dispute male sovereignty?” After all, throughout history other