Question

What does de Beauvoir mean when she references to the importance of "values" in shaping society within a woman's place?

Answer 1

In the book "The second sex" authored by Simone de Beauvoir the main ideology described is the probable reasons which are referred to as missed values due to which women are considered the second or inferior sex as compared to that of men. The author explains that in most of the theories we learn from fields such as biology, psychoanalysis, etc, we come across the fact that women are inferior to men due to reasons which do not give importance to the actual value of a woman. For instance, anatomically it is stated that men are physically stronger than women which makes them superior to women. The author points out that there is a missing link in this concept where the exact reason for the inferiority of women is far beyond physical strength. She claims that it is perhaps the ego and selfishness of men's mind to obtain supreme power that they have created a hierarchy in sex classification considering themselves as the best and their counterparts or women the next or inferior to them. Value of a woman such as her potential in giving birth to a child are never taken into consideration in any field as most of the researchers and eminent people in top position are men and they always would protect the supremacy of their sex in all theories purposefully ignoring many ultimate specialties in women which can actually make a woman far superior from men.