Publication of The Second Sex

On 19 June 1949, Simone de Beauvoir’s landmark work Le Deuxième Sexe (The Second Sex) was published, becoming one of the most consequential books in the history of feminist thought. The work examined women’s oppression across biology, history, myth, sexuality, labor, and lived experience, and it famously argued that woman is not born, but made. In the conservative postwar climate, the book was immediately provocative, intellectually ambitious, and politically disruptive.

Its significance cannot be overstated. The Second Sex became a foundational text for modern feminism and a central reference point for later second-wave feminist movements. Beauvoir did not simply describe women’s inequality; she analyzed the social processes that produced it, making the book a bridge between existential philosophy and feminist social critique. In a period when women’s emancipation was often treated as a secondary or private matter, she insisted that gender hierarchy was a profound philosophical and political issue.

The book’s legacy extends far beyond France. It influenced scholars, activists, and readers around the world, helping to establish feminist philosophy as a serious intellectual field. For Beauvoir, the publication represented the culmination of years of philosophical and political development; for women’s history, it marked a turning point in how modern societies understood gender, freedom, and agency.