The Second Sex

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 1949

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Volume I, Introduction

Volume I, Part 1: “Destiny”

Volume I, Part 2: “History”

Volume I, Part 3: “Myths”

Volume II, Introduction

Volume II, Part 1: “Formative Years”

Volume II, Part 2: “Situation”

Volume II, Part 3: “Justifications”

Volume II, Part 4: “Toward Liberation”

Conclusion

Key Figures

Themes

Index of Terms

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

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Discussion Questions

Volume II, Part 1: “Formative Years”Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Volume II: “Lived Experience”

Volume II, Part 1, Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis: “Childhood”

For Beauvoir, the indoctrination of girls into femininity begins at an early age: “One is not born, but rather becomes, woman” (283). This change begins when girls are four years old. Boys start to be separated from their mothers, while girls continue to be doted on by their parents. However, this is because boys are meant to go out one day and make their own path in society. Further, Beauvoir argues that girls begin to see their differences from boys when they notice the difference in genitalia, particularly the ability of boys to control their urination in a way girls cannot.

Beauvoir rejects the psychoanalytical theory that girls envy boys for having a penis. However, Beauvoir theorizes that girls at first believe they were mutilated and resent their parents, especially their mother. As girls grow older, these early impressions are solidified as girls imitate their mothers and mothers try to teach girls into becoming “true” women. Meanwhile, the boys in their lives treat them with disdain, and their fathers become like “God” (301).

During their formal education, girls learn a version of history in which most of the major figures are men. At home, they read and hear fairy tales and are brought up in their parents’ religion, which encourage passive gender roles. Some girls resist or try to support each other by forming tight friendships or by acting like boys. However, a girl’s upbringing and even her play orients her toward becoming a wife and mother. As Beauvoir summarizes the experience of young girls, “Her inferiority was at first understood as a privation: the absence of a penis was converted to a stain and fault. She makes her way toward the future wounded, shamed, worried, and guilty” (340). In other words, girls are taught from the start to view their bodies and their selves in comparison to boys and even to understand themselves as destined for a union with a boy.

Volume II, Part 1, Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis: “The Girl”

For an adolescent girl, the fact that she is waiting for marriage becomes more obvious. Beauvoir writes, “In a more or less disguised way, her youth is consumed by waiting. She is waiting for Man” (341). As part of this training, girls do not receive much athletic training, are encouraged to be humble and passive, and are taught not to be defiant—something generally promoted in boys. While girls are given an education and are encouraged in their artistic and scholarly endeavors, these are overshadowed by the fact that, in Beauvoir’s words, she is “expected to be a woman as well” (346).

Still, Beauvoir claims that young women are caught between their wish to be desired by men and their own desire to become free from their families and remain independent. This independence is nourished through what Beauvoir describes as “the cult of the self” (351). Girls develop and celebrate their sense of self through writing in diaries. In addition, they cultivate a need to keep their emotions secret while also preserving their thoughts. Further, the diary represents a sense that the girl is exceptional and unique. Beauvoir describes this fixation on the self as the “girl’s narcissism” (363). This leads girls into a paradox: “[S]he does not accept the destiny nature and society assign to her; and yet she does not actively repudiate it” (365).

Girls who become writers in adulthood reflect this tension in their works. However, it rarely ends well for their characters. It is expressed in the tendency of female writers to allow their female characters to die: “The girl is touching because she rises up against the world, weak and alone; but the world is too powerful; she persists in refusing it, she is broken” (377). The process of girls being molded into women may be in some ways an unconscious one on the part of both the girl and the people around her. Even so, it is something that at an early age girls try to resist.

Volume II, Part 1, Chapters 3-4 Summary & Analysis: “Sexual Initiation” and “The Lesbian”

Compared to the first sexual experiences of women, Beauvoir argues the male initiation into sexuality is “relatively simple” (383). While young men are allowed or even encouraged to seek out lovers, women are expected to be chaste. Nonetheless, even as virgins, women desire sex and wish to be active in their pursuit of lovers. If they do pursue their sexual urges outside the bonds of marriage, however, there is a risk of having a child out of wedlock. Such a transgression would be harshly punished by society.

Beauvoir further suggests that the first sexual experience is a difficult one for women, regardless of the exact circumstances. No matter how the male partner acts, a woman becomes a “carnal object” (406). Beauvoir argues some girls even develop masochism in order to punish themselves for giving themselves up to someone else. In Beauvoir’s view, for women making love the “best situation for sexual initiation is one in which the girl learns to overcome her modesty, to get to know her partner, and to enjoy his caresses without violence or surprise, without fixed rules or a precise time frame” (404).

As for women who identify as lesbian, Beauvoir argues against the stereotype of her time that lesbians act masculine while straight women are always feminine. Also, Beauvoir objects to the theory among psychoanalysts that lesbians are “afraid of men” (420). Instead, Beauvoir argues that lesbians may “seek to claim the treasures of their femininity” (428) rather than simply revolt against masculinity.

In Beauvoir’s view, being a lesbian is “an attitude chosen in situation; it is both motivated and freely chosen” (436). Overall, Beauvoir denies that lesbians are simply denying the influence of men. However, she suggests that lesbians must present themselves in masculine ways because they are attempting to adopt roles without the presence of men.