Edited sentence: Critics were quick to take issue with these claims,.The sheer volume of critical works on de Beauvoir is a testament to her stature.They had effectively returned women to history.While it has become fashionable in some circles to dismiss de Beauvoir as an historical artefact, others claim that all the essential elements of modern feminism can be found in her work.but what really mattered was that patriarchy as right could no longer be assumed, feminists, to use Jane Ellen Harrison' phrase, had utilised the newer scientific disciplines and "continued to lay the axe...[to] that fair family Tree"