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Western Civilization II / Unit 18   WC2 1730 short lesson, about 20 seconds

Beauvoir's Second Sex, and What Postwar Women Faced

Captions available

The idea

Beauvoir's The Second Sex of nineteen forty-nine said woman is defined with reference to man: "He is the Subject, he is the Absolute; she is the Other." Postwar women had the vote and little else: dismissal for pregnancy, unequal pay, no marital rape, violence tolerated.

In practice

American white women at sixty percent of men's pay.

Where people slip

Quoted within one sentence from the archive.

Your place on the trail

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