The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir from 1949 argues that one is not born, but rather becomes a woman. De Beauvoir establishes a distinction between biological sex and the social/historical construction of gender. She rejects the traditional view that women have a fixed feminine essence, arguing instead that femininity is a historical and social situation. De Beauvoir analyzes how women have traditionally been viewed as the "Other" in a patriarchal society, where men are defined as the positive subjects and women are the negative objects. She explores how this affects women's access to power and autonomy in their lives.