Simone de Beauvoir
1908 – 1986
About Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, novelist, and feminist theorist whose book The Second Sex (1949) is one of the foundational texts of modern feminism. Born in Paris to a bourgeois family, she graduated from the École Normale Supérieure and taught philosophy alongside Jean-Paul Sartre, with whom she maintained a lifelong open relationship. Her novels — including She Came to Stay (1943) and The Mandarins (1954, Prix Goncourt) — dramatize the existentialist themes she developed in her philosophical essays.
The Second Sex argued that woman is not born but made — a social construction — and that liberation requires economic independence, intellectual engagement, and resistance to the roles patriarchal society assigns. The book was immediately placed on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books.
“Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”
Quick Facts
- Born
- 1908
- Died
- 1986
- Lifespan
- 78 years
- Domain
- inspiration
- Quotes
- 5 collected
- Key Themes
- ActionIndependenceSocietyRelationshipsIdentity
Learn More
Wikipedia — Simone de BeauvoirSimone de Beauvoir's Famous Quotes
5 quotes
“Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.”
— Widely attributed to de Beauvoir — from various interviews and writings
“I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely.”
— Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter (Mémoires d'une jeune fille rangée, 1958)
“Society cares for the individual only so far as he is profitable.”
— Widely attributed to de Beauvoir — consistent with her existentialist and socialist philosophy
“To catch a husband is an art; to hold him is a job.”
— Widely attributed to de Beauvoir — from various essays and interviews
“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.”
— The Second Sex (Le Deuxième Sexe, 1949), Introduction
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Frequently Asked Questions
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was a French existentialist philosopher, novelist, and feminist theorist whose book The Second Sex (1949) is one of the foundational texts of modern feminism. Born in Paris to a bourgeois family, she graduated from the École Normale Supérieure and taught philosophy alongside Jean-Paul Sartre, with whom she maintained a lifelong open relationship. Her novels — including She Came to Stay (1943) and The Mandarins (1954, Prix Goncourt) — dramatize the existentialist themes she developed in her philosophical essays. The Second Sex argued that woman is not born but made — a social construction — and that liberation requires economic independence, intellectual engagement, and resistance to the roles patriarchal society assigns. The book was immediately placed on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books. Simone de Beauvoir lived 1908 – 1986.