ABSTRACT
The British historian Brian Easlea, writing from an intendedly feminist viewpoint, has devoted an entire work to Science and Sexual Oppression. Easlea’s central thesis is that science is in essencemale; it excludes the female dimension and leads to its domination by masculine values. Science thus confounds itself with a masculine mode of thought, a means for man to penetrate the universe as he penetrates woman through sex. The author of The Second Sex establishes herself as a precursor by grasping the link between the feminine and the sense of harmony. In woman, the search for harmony is also an internalization, a tendency to center space on oneself. Furthermore, the author of The Second Sex recognizes the psychological effects of menstruation. The experience of maternity and the rhythms imposed by menstruation cause her belly to maintain closer ties to the emotions, and even to the intellect, than in the male.
