WGSS 235 - The Second Sex: Beauvoir on the Power of Gender

(PHIL 235) FDR: HU
Planned Offering: Spring 2018 and alternate years
Credits: 4

Sixty years after its initial publication, The Second Sex is as eye-opening and relevant as ever. Simone de Beauvoir’s masterpiece weaves together history, philosophy, economics, biology, and a host of other disciplines to analyze the Western notion of “woman” and to explore the making and the power of gender and sexuality. The Second Sex is an important philosophical and political document about inequality and enforced “otherness.” Referring to the history of philosophy, new developments in existential thought, and drawing on extensive interviews with women, Beauvoir synthesizes research about women’s bodies and psyches as well as their historic and economic roles. Verhage.