xviii INTRODUCTION TO THE VINTAGE EDITION 9 Franpous Poulay de la Barre (1647-1725),De l'galite des deux sexes (On the Equality of Both Sexes),(1673),(Pans Librarrie Artheme Fayard,1984) 10 Terry Keefe,Simone de Beauvoir A Study of Her Wntmgs (Totowa,N]Barnes Noble Books,1983),p 111 11 Elame Marks and Isabelle dc Courtivran,eds,New French Feminisms (Amherst Introduction UnIv of Michgan Press,1980),introduction,Pp 6 and 7 12 Francis leanson,Simone de Beauvorr ou l'entreprise de vivre (Paris Edtions du Seul, 1966.p253 me have hesitated tori 13 Stevne Smith,"The Devil's Doorway,"revew of The Second Sex,The Spectator,no subject is irritating,especially to women;and it is not new.Enough 6543(November20,1953).602-603 ink has been spilled in the quarreling over feminism,now practically 14 C B Radford,"Femnism's Fnend or Fae?,"Nottingham French Studtes 6,2 (October 1967)89 over,and perhaps we should say no more about it.It is still talked 15 H M Parshley,"Report on Le Deuxieme Sexe by Simone de Beauvoir,Vol I," about,however,for the voluminous nonsense uttered during the last courtesy of Mrs Elsa Parshley Brown century seems to have done little to illuminate the problem.After all, 16 Alfred A Knopf to H M Parshley,November 27,1951 17 Simone de Beauvor,quoted Blanche Knopf's letter to H M Parshley,January is there a problem?And if so,what is it?Are there women,really? 8.1953 Most assuredly the theory of the eternal feminine still has its adherents 18 Brendan Gill,"No More Eve,"The Nmny Yorker 29,2(February 28,1953)97-99 who will whisper in your car:"Even in Russia women still are 19 Deirdre Bair,"Sumone de Beauvoir Poltics,Language,and Feminist Identity,"Yale French Studies,no 72,1986,p 162 women";and other erudite persons--sometimes the very same-say with a sigh:"Woman is losing her way,woman is lost."One wonders if women still exist,if they will always exist,whether or not it is de- sirable that they should,what place they occupy in this world,what their place should be."What has become of women?"was asked re- 的 cently in an ephemeral magazine.* But first we must ask:what is a woman?"Tota mulier in utero," says one,"woman is a womb."But in speaking of certain women,con- noisseurs declare that they are not women,although they are equipped with a uterus like the rest.All agree in recognizing the fact that fe- males exist in the human species;today as always they make up about one half of humanity.And yet we are told that femininity is in dan- ger;we are exhorted to be women,remain women,become women.It would appear,then,that every female human being is not necessarily a woman;to be so considered she must share in that mysterious and threatened rcality known as femininity.Is this attribute something secreted by the ovaries?Or is it a Platonic essence,a product of the philosophic imagination?Is a rustling petticoat enough to bring it down to carth?Although some women try zealously to incarnate this essence,it is hardly patentable.It is frequently described in vague and dazzling terms that seem to have been borrowed from the vo- cabulary of the seers,and indeed in the times of St.Thomas it was considered an essence as certainly defined as the somniferous virtue of the poppy. Franchise,dead today