10 questions · Society & Everyday
Simone de Beauvoir, born in Paris in 1908 into a middle-class family, is an exceptionally bright child who breaks early with the Catholic faith and the conventions of her upbringing. She studies philosophy at the Sorbonne and sits the notoriously difficult agrégation: the youngest candidate ever to do so at the time. In the exam she comes second, narrowly behind a young man named Jean-Paul Sartre. From that meeting grows a lifelong, unconventional partnership: no marriage, no shared household, but an intellectual bond that unites the two until death. Beauvoir becomes one of the most important thinkers of existentialism; the philosophy that holds that human beings have no fixed essence but create themselves through their choices. She writes novels, essays and diaries, but her epochal work appears in 1949: 'The Second Sex'. In it she analyses, with razor-sharp clarity, how "woman" was made over centuries into the deviant "Other" against man. From this book comes her most famous line: "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman." By this she means that femininity is not nature but social conditioning. The idea becomes a cornerstone of the modern women's movement; for the feminist wave of the 1960s and 70s, Beauvoir is a guiding figure. She remains politically engaged all her life: against the Algerian War, for the right to abortion, for the women's movement. When she dies in 1986 she is buried next to Sartre in the Montparnasse cemetery in Paris. Her work is still regarded as one of the pillars of feminist thought: a book that gave millions of women the language to understand their own situation.
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The Second Sex
In it she analyses how "woman" was made into the deviant "Other" against man.
💡 Did you know? „The Second Sex“ (1949) analysed the oppression of women so fundamentally that it became a foundation of modern feminism.
One is not born, but becomes, a woman
„One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman“: Beauvoir's line shaped the idea that gender roles are learned.
💡 Did you know? The line means that femininity is not nature but social conditioning.
existentialism
According to this philosophy, humans have no fixed essence but create themselves through their choices.
💡 Did you know? Beauvoir was a leading thinker of existentialism, which places freedom and responsibility for one's own actions at its centre.
Jean-Paul Sartre
Their unconventional relationship had no marriage or shared household, yet lasted a lifetime.
💡 Did you know? With Jean-Paul Sartre, Beauvoir had an open, lifelong partnership without marriage: unusual and much discussed.
France
She was born in Paris and studied at the Sorbonne.
💡 Did you know? From Paris, Beauvoir became one of the most influential intellectuals of the 20th century.
youngest to pass the agrégation
At 21 Beauvoir passed the demanding „agrégation“ in philosophy as one of the youngest candidates ever.
💡 Did you know? The examiners debated whether she was in fact the better of the two.
women's movement / feminism
The feminist wave of the 1960s and 70s in particular drew on her work.
💡 Did you know? Beauvoir became a figurehead of the new women's movement and used her fame deliberately for women's rights.
against the Algerian War, for abortion rights
Beauvoir publicly opposed the Algerian War and campaigned for abortion rights: in 1971 she and many other women openly admitted to an illegal abortion.
💡 Did you know? In 1971 she signed the "Manifesto of the 343", in which women publicly admitted to having had an abortion.
Foto: Moshe Milner · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir (1908 to 1986) was a French philosopher and writer whose book „The Second Sex“ helped found modern feminism.
💡 Did you know? Her line „One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman“ is among the most influential sentences of the 20th century.
1908
Born: 9 January 1908 in Paris
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