Feminism and the issue of women’s alienation (Emphasizing female identity in Simone de Beauvoir’s book “The Second Sex”

The present study is feminism and the issue of women’s alienation (with emphasis on female identity in Simone de Beauvoir’s book “The Second Sex”). The research problem requires that we try to answer the problem by referring to library sources and by descriptive-analytical method. After outlining the discussion, the category of “other” and the issue of female originality from the perspective of feminism, along with the views of some feminist scholars on the views of historical materialism, biological views and psychoanalytic views are discussed. And then in this research, the second sex is reviewed and analyzed along with the views and opinions of Simone de Beauvoir about the identity and what a woman is, the causes of women’s alienation and the way out of women’s alienation. In de Beauvoir’s view, factors such as the physiological differences of women, the family system (marriage and motherhood) and the system of patriarchy and capitalism, while depicting and reproducing women’s inferiority and exploitation, have fostered the phenomenon of women’s alienation. However, in analyzing women’s alienation, de Beauvoir criticizes most social institutions and considers the way out of such factors as leaving the family system (leaving marriage, housekeeping and motherhood), fertility control, abortion freedom, employment and gaining financial independence. It is noteworthy that de Beauvoir made a mistake about the real identity of a woman because he does not know the true identity of a woman in achieving a completely feminine identity, but considers the true identity of a woman to achieve a masculine identity.