A Comparative Study Of Beauvoir's Feminist Theory And Marx's Thought On Women's Liberation

After it was published in 1949,"Second Sex" quickly became one of the basic representative works of feminist thought.Simone de Beauvoir issued a statement in it,which provided information for almost all subsequent feminism: "Women are not born,they are made." Since the advent of "Second Sex",there have been various interpretations and criticisms of the text in the academic circles.Most notably,her work was interpreted as incorporating Sartre’s existentialism only and applying it to women’s social status.However,some scholars believe that her work is also the exploration and development of Marxism.The uniqueness of Beauvoir’s philosophical contribution is that she uses Marx’s historical materialism as a method to focus on women’s unique situation and status in society.Therefore,this thesis follows this argument and explores the role and value of Marxism in clarifying these ideas.This article treats Beauvoir’s feminist thought as a complete system,and attempts to compare and analyze Marx’s theory of women’s liberation.Its research content mainly includes four parts: The first chapter introduces the historical background and theoretical sources of Beauvoir’s feminism,which leads to "other" and "absolute other" as the core concepts of his theory.Beauvoir’s feminism was inspired by Marx’s historical materialism,so it is necessary to discuss Marx and Engels ’thoughts on women’s liberation in Chapter 2,including Marx’s position on the historical materialism of women’s liberation and the oppressed status of women Analysis and the fundamental approach to women’s liberation.The third part examines the similarities and differences between Beauvoir’s feminist theory and Marx’s thoughts on women’s liberation.The author believes that Beauvoir and Marx echo the viewpoint of the nature of man.Both believe that the changing material conditions in history lead to the changing human characteristics in history.Marx believed that capitalism was a crucial period for the development of social order.He regarded alienation as an objective feature of capitalism,and patriarchy followed.For Marx,patriarchy was another influence of capitalism.However,Beauvoir is different here.She believes that patriarchy is an independent field.It has its own set of oppressive structures that intersect capitalism.It cannot be regarded as a result of capitalism alone.She supplemented Marxism with the existential and phenomenological perspectives,and effectively combined Marxism,existentialism,and phenomenology in "Second Sex." Finally,through the study of Marx’s thoughts on women’s liberation,and the in-depth study of Beauvoir’s "Second Sex",the combination of the two theories can effectively complement and improve each other,for digging up women’s own value,awakening women’s The awareness of awakening and the continuous recognition and improvement of women’s values in China’s society have great practical significance,and also provide great reference significance for the emancipation and development of women’s thoughts in China.