The Second Sex

In Volume I, Part 4, Chapter 5, Beauvoir discussed a historical shift toward women’s liberation starting with the Industrial Revolution and the greater availability of abortion and birth control. Here, Beauvoir returns to the subject of women’s liberation. She reiterates that a movement toward the emancipation of women is ongoing in her present day. However, this emancipation has yet to truly begin. Beauvoir describes this as a “new condition of women” that represents a “step toward equality” (726).

Beauvoir notes that, in her native France, women were recently given the right to vote. However, she adds “these civil liberties remain abstract if there is no corresponding economic autonomy” (721). Jobs are important in Beauvoir’s view of freedom for women. Through activity and production, women can assert themselves both as individuals and as members of society. Unfortunately, Beauvoir still sees that having a husband or lover along with a job serves as a double burden for women. Also, Beauvoir argues professional women are still burdened by social conventions that men do not have to navigate. Professional women are “severely scrutinized” (727) based on their appearance and behavior.

There are also challenges for these women in their private lives. For women who wish to have sex lives outside a husband, male sex workers are relatively rare and casual flings are much more of a physical danger for women than men.