Simone Lucie Ernestine Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir was born in Paris, France, into a bourgeois family. She was raised Catholic and received her education at convent schools, wishing to be a nun. After WW1, her family lost much of their fortune, so her dowery was at risk, meaning that her marriage options were limited, and de Beauvoir saw that as an opportunity to become independent and earn her own living. In 1926, at 18, she attended the Sorbonne as a non-official student for preparations for the philosophy agrégation – a competitive national postgraduate examination. At 21, she passed the exam with the second-highest record, becoming the youngest person ever to pass the exam. At the time, she met the philosopher-to-be Jean-Paul Sartre. After de Beauvoir rejected his marriage proposal early on in their relationship, they formed a lifelong “soul partnership” that was sexual (but not inclusive) and professional. After receiving her degree in 1929, and for the next 15 years, de Beauvoir taught philosophy and literature in various high education institutes in France, including the Lycée Montgrand in Marseille and the Lycée Molière in Paris. During WW2, the Vichy government had dismissed her from her teaching position, which led de Beauvoir to launch her literary career, and she began writing plays, philosophical essays, and novels. In 1943, 35 years old de Beauvoir published her first book – She Came to Stay, exploring her real-life love triangle with Sartre and a young student named Olga Kosakiewicz, examining the complexity of relationships and the conscience to the other through existential lenses. The following year, she published a philosophical essay titled Pyrrhus and Cineas and a novel, The Blood of Others, questioning existentialist ethics. In 1949, at the age of 41, de Beauvoir published her most known work, The Second Sex – a 1,000-page analysis of the patriarchy and women’s oppression throughout history. In this groundbreaking book, she claimed that “One is not born but becomes a woman,” making the distinction between biological sex and the social construction of gender and ultimately defining the foundational of contemporary feminism. de Beauvoir published more than 80 books in different genres over the next four decades. Including novels, travel books, autobiographies, and philosophical essays. Among them were: The Mandarins, for which she won the Prix Goncourt, and a four-volume autobiography titled Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter; The Prime of Life; Force of Circumstance. In her later works, she discussed the philosophy of aging and death. In her 1964 novella, A Very Easy Death, she detailed her mother’s passing, as well as in her 1970 book, The Coming of Age, which provided reflected bitterly on society’s perception of elders. Throughout the years, de Beauvoir used both her pen and voice to advocate for various political and social causes, such as the struggle of Hungary for independence, the student movement in France in the 1960s, and against American foreign policy during the Vietnam War. In the 1970s, de Beauvoir became involved with the women’s liberation movement in France. She wrote essays, gave lectures, and participated in women’s equality demonstrations. In her work and her actions, de Beauvoir influenced many worldwide feminists in her time and paved the way for all feminists to follow. She died of pneumonia at the age of 78. Read more...