Historical Influence

I agree with the points that both of you have made. From my interpretation of of Beauvoir, she consistently stresses the need to realize that no event created this subordination. She does state "If woman discovers herself as inessential and never turns into the essential, it is because she does not bring about the transformation herself." (Page 270). Through this quote, I believe Beauvoir is emphasizing that women must take on the problem of subordination and change it themselves. Like Madeleine stated, women need to work together to overcome this. I do not think Beauvoir is trying to say that nothing will ever change, but that we should look at these historical cases for motivation to change and to learn from them.

I agree with your point Vanessa because I think Beauvoir is trying to show that women cannot change how they are labelled as the "Other" if they do not actively seek to redefine and reconstruct this definition themselves. In this sense, it must be women to change how women are perceived and not men or else there will be little improvements. Furthermore, women in contemporary times are clearly more assertive and vocal about their rights and opinions than previous generations but more is still needed to reach true equality between the sexes. Women need to show that they are "humans" first and "females" second; everyone is human at the end of the day and thus, no one should not be judged or discriminated on the basis of biological differences. This idea is illustrated with the Women's March on Washington 2017 wherein women's rights were framed as human rights.