An analysis of the role of humanism in Simone de Beauvoir’s ' ‘The second sex’

Abstract

This paper is a critical analysis of the philosophical debates Simone de Beauvoir presented in the Second Sex, vis-à-vis the social status of women, as the inferior gender. Simone de Beauvoir’s analysis offered a historical and anthropological understanding of the subordination of women and its origins. De Beauvoir provided a humanist and phenomenological approach discussing what constitutes the definition of womanhood, in psychological, sociological and religious terms. In this paper, I will illustrate and examine Simone de Beauvoir’s arguments against the discrimination of women, and correspondingly, highlight several problematic notions in her philosophy.