Simone de Beauvoir
French existentialist philosopher and writer
Simone de Beauvoir was a French existentialist philosopher, writer and feminist. She is best known for The Second Sex, her 1949 study of women's oppression.
2 summaries 46 min of listening
French Born 1908 in 6th arrondissement of Paris, France Died 1986
Influenced by Immanuel Kant, Jean-Paul Sartre, Karl Marx
About Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir (1908 to 1986) was born in Paris and became a writer, social theorist and political activist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, memoirs and books on philosophy, politics and social issues. Although she did not consider herself a philosopher, she shaped both feminist existentialism and feminist theory. The Second Sex, published in 1949, examines the oppression of women and is regarded as a foundational text of contemporary feminism. She also wrote The Ethics of Ambiguity, a philosophical study. Her novels include She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, which won the Prix Goncourt in 1954. She also received the Jerusalem Prize in 1975 and the Austrian State Prize for European Literature in 1978. She shared a lifelong partnership with the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre.