Nature of the Second Sex

by Simone de Beauvoir

In her forthright, incisive style, Simone de Beauvoir considers woman's role through the ages, her destiny, history, and the myths that have been built up around her. With ruthless logic, the author strips away the legends to show woman as she really is, a different kind of human being to man--the second sex.

Woman has her special needs and nature, but they are often submerged and only partially understood by both sexes. Mlle de Beauvoir brings woman's nature into the open and discusses the dreams and fears with which she has been disquised. She dissects the opposing views of psychologists, historians and authors, finally exposing the core of the matter--biological fact.

Genres: Feminism

287 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Works of Simone de Beauvoir, French writer, existentialist, and feminist, include The Second Sex in 1949 and The Coming of Age , a study in 1970 of views of different cultures on the old.


Simone de Beauvoir, an author and philosopher, wrote novels, monographs, political and social issues, essays, biographies, and an autobiography. People now best know She Came to Stay and The Mandarins , her metaphysical novels. Her treatise, a foundational contemporary tract, of 1949 detailed analysis of oppression of women.