Second Sex

Constance Borde and Sheila Malovany-Chevallier, both American, are longtime residents of France and former teachers at the Institut dÉtudes Politiques in Paris.

Judith Thurman, author of Isak Dinesen and Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette, is a staff writer at The New Yorker.

From the Hardcover edition.

Book One: Facts and Myths

Part One: Destiny

1. The Data of Biology

2. The Psychoanalytic Point of View

3. The Point of View of Historical Materialism

Part Two: History

4. The Nomads

5. Early Tillers of the Soil

6. Patriarchal Times and Classical Antiquity

7. Through the Middle Ages to 18th Century France

8. Since the French Revolution: the Job and the Vote

Part Three: Myths

9. Dreams, Fears, Idols

10. The Myth of Woman in Five Authors

      a. Montherlant or the Bread of Disgust

      b. D.H. Lawrence or Phallic Pride

      c. Claudel and the Handmaid of the Lord

      d. Breton or Poetry

      e. Stendhal or the Romantic of Reality

      f. Summary

11. Myth and Reality

Book Two: Woman's Life Today

Part Four: The Formative Years

12. Childhood

13. The Young Girl

14. Sexual Initiation

15. The Lesbian

Part Five: Situation

16. The Married Woman

17. The Mother

18. Social Life

19. Prostitutes and Hetairas

20. From Maturity to Old Age

21. Woman's Situation and Character

Part Six: Justifications

22. The Narcissist

23. The Woman in Love

24. The Mystic

Part Seven: Toward Liberation

25. The Independent Woman

Conclusion