The figures · Philosophers

Simone de Beauvoir

De Beauvoir's The Second Sex became one of the most influential works of modern feminism.

BORN 1908 CE · Paris, FranceDIED 1986 CE · Paris, FranceERA Twentieth-century philosophy

NOTABLE CONTRIBUTION

Analyzed womanhood as historically constructed and made existentialist philosophy central to feminist theory.

THE RECORD

She argued that societies make woman the Other rather than a full subject.
Her work shaped second-wave feminism, gender theory, and debates about freedom.
She examined biology, myth, history, labor, sexuality, and lived experience together.