The Second Sex

It is important to understand the historical circumstances surrounding the years 1946 to 1949, when Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex. When she refers to how some people “think woman as such no longer exists” (4), she is referring to how the late 19th and 20th centuries saw significant changes in the political and social rights of women and their position in society and the economy. Women technically gained the right to vote in Russia by 1917, Britain by 1918, nationally in the United States by 1920 (with Jim Crow restrictions affecting the right of Black women to vote in some states), and in France much later by 1944. The suffrage movement was one aspect of a broader shift in women’s status in society. Especially during the World Wars, professional, salaried jobs became more available for women. Meanwhile, in Europe, the Americas, and other parts of the world, women were increasingly entering universities and joining high-paying professions in medicine and academia.

In the 1940s, birth control was largely available in England and the United States (735). Abortion was still illegal in many Western nations, a situation that would not change until abortion laws began to be overturned in the 1960s, including in France.