Since 1953, when The Second Sex first appeared in America, English speakers have been reading a botched translation written by a Smith College zoologist that reflects the mindset of a 1950s male. That, at least, has been the contention of a growing number of Simone de Beauvoir scholars since the 1980s. Duke University professor Toril Moi has found mistakes and omissions on every page of Howard Madison Parshley's translation, from elementary boo-boos to misunderstandings of philosophical terms.

(Untrained in philosophy, Parshley wrote his 1953 translation in isolation; he was also unfamiliar