Simone De Beauvoir Research Paper

Existentialist, French writer, feminist, political activist and social theorist, Simone de Beauvoir laid the foundation for the second wave feminist movement and significantly impacted the lives of many women, from all races and walks of life. There were many philosophical theories and ideas that advanced from Simone de Beauvoir. She incorporated various political and ethical ideas into her work but the main focus was on feminism and equality. Her work was usually based on gender inequality, freedom and ambiguity.

Simone de Beauvoir believed that “One is not born a woman, but rather becomes, a woman”. She theorized that women weren’t born fully formed, but rather gradually shaped in her upbringing. She believed that society specifically categorised women into being of “the second sex”, by framing them with roles that are thought to be in their nature e.g. childbirth, cooking and cleaning. This argument seems to be quite powerful. At a time where feminism stood for being concerned with women’s suffrage and property rights, this idea broadened the perspective of femineity to include family, sexuality, reproductive rights and so on. This idea of being not born, but rather made into women is still of high relevance. Even today, women are somewhat still expected to devote their lives completely into marriage, reproduction and live as the “second sex”. However, to a limited extent, this belief
She mainly believed what she did because of what she saw; this included how women were considered inferior to men in most aspects of life, by society. This proved to be the main reason for most of her ideas. Simone de Beauvoir also believed that motherhood was a way of turning women into slaves. She primarily believed this because women were ‘forced’ to focus on motherhood instead of things like politics, technology or anything else outside of their lives at