The ‘woman problem’ as critical theory: Dialectical methodology in The Second Sex and beyond

There are several possible strategies when it comes to producing new analytical categories and conceptual frameworks in feminist theory: we can work towards making visible what was hitherto hidden, we can posit positive programmes to serve as an alternative to status quo, or we can negatively problematize existing concepts and frameworks. Critical theory provides a fourth option and is particularly radical in that it seeks to expose implicit conflicts in society and show how these themselves contain the potential for transformation. This immanent strategy is intimately linked with dialectical reasoning – but what is in fact the role and prospects of dialectics in critical feminist methodologies? In this paper I argue that we find in Simone de Beauvoir a paradigmatic example of how a dialectical feminist analysis may be put together and that this has significant political consequences...