Originally published in 1949 as a novel, The Second Sex reads more like a textbook of the history of female oppression, taking on topics ranging from Christian depictions of women, the right to vote, menstruation and maternity. De Beauvoir begins by saying famously, one is not born a woman, one becomes a woman. Straight away, she attacks the myths perpetuated about women and gender as essential to a person’s being. The book is shockingly ahead of its time and it can’t be overstated how important it was in inspiring the second wave of feminism. One that moves beyond legal equality and into philosophical and societal differences in the way women are treated.

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