Simone de Beauvoir

The 'second sex' between past and present

Abstract

Reading once again Simone de Beauvoir’s book, The Second Sex, it is possible to pinpoint some proposals in the field of feminine studies from the twenties of the last century until our times. This book was very important for the French culture in the Fifties, but one has to recognise that in other European countries the situation was different. For example, twenty years before in Germany there was Edith Stein’s proposal of dual anthropology, through which it is possible to tackle the emancipation of women in a better way. The comparison between the two women philosophers let us to clarify Beauvoir’s position on one hand and to deepen the question from a theoretical point of view, which requires a feminine philosophical foundation, on the other.