El segundo sexo

The second sex revolutionized our way of thinking about the female condition and decisively marked the development of contemporary feminism. This powerful essay challenges us today with astonishing validity. In it, Simone de Beauvoir combined philosophy, history, literature, sociology and autobiography to explore the factors that have contributed to constructing women as the Other, defined in relation to the male subject and situated between what has been presented as "feminine nature" and the demands of a patriarchal society. Faithful to her famous statement "you are not born a woman, you become one", Beauvoir showed to what extent femininity is a cultural construction. Faced with this imposed destiny, she vindicated the freedom, responsibility and ability of women to define themselves. More than seven decades later, Simone de Beauvoir's work has transcended the literary and philosophical to influence some of the most important social and political movements, and remains an unavoidable reference for those who refuse to accept inequality as a "natural" fact.