The Second Sex Lesson Plan

So - What is a Woman?

Kind of Activity:

Classwide Discussion

Objective:

For students to examine gender and sex in order to more fully engage with De Beauvoir’s treatise.

Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.2, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.3, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RI.11-12.6, CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.11-12.1

Structure:

De Beauvoir asks the question “what is woman” almost immediately in The Second Sex, and “are there even women?” The answers she discusses are so varied and different that it is worthwhile that students should ask this question of themselves. What do they think a woman is? How can this perception be challenged, and what unexpected answers might there...