Simone de Beauvoir

The Second Sex has been called a “feminist bible,”

One is not born, but rather becomes, woman

To a reader of this new translation—a young feminist perhaps, for whom the very title may seem as quaint as a pair of bloomers—I would suggest that the best way to appreciate The Second Sex is to read it in the spirit it was written: as a deep and urgent personal meditation on a true hope that, as she will probably discover, is still elusive for many of us: to become, in every sense, one’s own woman.

The problem of woman has always been a problem of men.”

On ne naît pas femme: on le devient, reads, in our translation: “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman.”

Tota mulier in utero: she is a womb,”

Tota mulier in utero: she is a womb,”

I cannot be fair about books that treat women as women. My idea is that all of us, men as well as women, whoever we are, should be considered as human beings.”

Woman is losing herself, woman is lost.”

What people have endlessly sought to prove is that woman is superior, inferior, or equal to man: created after Adam, she is obviously a secondary being, some say; on the contrary, say others, Adam was only a rough draft, and God perfected the human being when he created Eve; her brain is smaller, but relatively bigger; Christ was made man, but perhaps out of humility. Every argument has its opposite, and both are often misleading.