Simone de Beauvoir
Also known as Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir
French existentialist philosopher and writer (1908 to 1986); wrote The Second Sex.
At a glance
Main ideas
One becomes a woman, Woman as Other, Existentialist ethics …
See all 5Criticism
Former students, Brasillach
See all 2Books to start with
She Came to Stay, The Ethics of Ambiguity, The Second Sex …
See all 5Connections
Also on this page: Key facts · Links · Sources · Related pages
- Beauvoir was a French writer and philosopher whose The Second Sex (1949) became a foundational text of modern feminism.
- She wrote novels, including She Came to Stay and The Mandarins, which won the Prix Goncourt, and a celebrated series of memoirs.
- She was Jean-Paul Sartre's partner from 1929 until his death in 1980.
- In the 1970s she was active in France's women's liberation movement.
Why it matters
- Her claim that one is not born but becomes a woman underlies much modern thinking about gender.
Key facts
- Born
- 9 Jan 1908, Montparnasse, Paris1
- Died
- 14 Apr 1986, Paris, aged 78, of pneumonia; buried beside Sartre in Montparnasse Cemetery1
- Teaching
- Taught in lycées from 1929 to 1943, until she could live from her writing1
- Awards
- Prix Goncourt (1954) for The Mandarins; Jerusalem Prize (1975); Austrian State Prize for European Literature (1978)1
- Nobel
- Nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961, 1969 and 19731
- Activism
- Wrote and signed the Manifesto of the 343 (1971), declaring abortions then illegal in France1
- Declined
- The Legion of Honour, offered by François Mitterrand in 19821
Main ideas
-
One becomes a woman2
"One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman": femininity is made by society, not given by nature.
-
Woman as Other2
Man is treated as the default, and woman defined relative to him.
-
Existentialist ethics1
Set out in Pyrrhus et Cinéas (1944) and The Ethics of Ambiguity (1947).
-
Mortality gives meaning1
In All Men Are Mortal, life without death would be meaningless.
-
Old age1
The Coming of Age (1970) applied her analysis of oppression to the elderly.
Criticism
Books to start with
The line under a date fills as it gets older: empty when new, full at 2 years.
Connections
Writes
Links
Sources
Last checked against its sources today
Is something on this page wrong or out of date? Tell us
The line under a date fills as time passes: empty when new, then one equal share each for a day, a week, a month and a year. For episodes and other items it is full at 2 years; for "last checked", at a year. A striped line means the date is known only to the month or year.