Columbia University Press Simone de Beauvoir, Philosophy, and Feminism

In the introduction to The Second Sex, Simone de Beauvoir notes that 'a man never begins by establishing himself as an individual of a certain sex: his being a man poses no problem.' Nancy Bauer begins her book by asking: 'Then what kind of a problem does being a woman pose?' Bauer's aim is to show that in answering this question The Second Sex dramatizes the extent to which being a woman poses a philosophical problem. In exploring what it might mean to philosophize as a woman, Beauvoir produced a book that not only sparked the contemporary feminist movement but also, Bauer argues, made an important but still profoundly undervalued contribution to the philosophical tradition.