Full title  The Second Sex

Author Simone de Beauvoir

Type of work Nonfiction

Genre Women’s studies; philosophy

Language French

Time and place written Paris

Date of first publication  1949

Publisher Gallimard

Point of view Third person; very occasionally first person

Major conflict Men and women struggle for primacy in society.

Themes Immanence vs. transcendence; nature vs. nurture; reproduction vs. production

Motifs The eternal feminine; the Other

Symbols The praying mantis