The Second Sex

Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre both subscribe to the philosophy of existentialism. Definitions of existentialism can be broad, but it tends to focus on how humans understand themselves and the world around them, and how they achieve freedom. This is key to understanding how Beauvoir views the history of women and gender roles. Rather than framing women’s oppression as a problem of economics and labor or biology, for Beauvoir it is a matter of the human self and human relations.

Hetaera is an ancient Greek word meaning courtesan. Beauvoir uses it to refer to women who make a living by becoming the lovers of a wealthy man. While these women are technically independent, they are still dependent on lovers in much the same way that women rely on their husbands and male relatives. Also, Beauvoir argues that hetaerae (plural) adopt the culture and ideas of the bourgeoisie (615).

Developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, historical materialism is the theory that economics and labor shape history. Specifically, history is driven by how labor is organized and by conflict between economic classes.