Simone De Beauvoir

Simone De Beauvoir (du bov war) - A French philosopher, novelist, and essayist

“When we abolish the slavery of half of humanity, together with the whole system of hypocrisy that it implies, then the ‘division’ of humanity will reveal its genuine significance and the human couple will find its true form.” The Second Sex, 1949

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman. No biological, psychological or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that determines this creature.” The Second Sex, 1949

De Beauvoir was born in Paris on January 9, 1908. Her full name was Simone Lucie-Ernestine-Marie-Bertrand de Beauvoir. She was the elder of two girls. She grew up a bourgeois family. Her father wanted to be in the theatre but because of his position in society he studied to be a lawyer. Her mother was a strict Catholic. While still a child she grew disillusioned with religion and abandoned it, but developed a deep sense of aloneness.

When Simone was 21 she moved from Paris to live with a grandmother and studied philosophy at Sorbonne. Simone was one of the first women permitted to complete a program of study at Ecole Normale Superieure. After university she met and became a life-long companion of Jean-Paul Sartre. After she graduated she taught high school while developing the basis and voice on feminism and existentialism. Simone received her unwanted title of existentialist due to her friendship with Jean-Paul Sartre. Simone was “an anti-colonialist, …. a pro-abortionist and a socialist with Marxist sympathies.” (www.trincoll)

She also wrote several novels during her lifetime, some earlier works are The Ethics of Ambiguity (1948) and L’Envitee (1943). Her most famous nonfiction is The Second Sex (1949). She wrote a memoir about Sartre entitled, Adieux: A Farewell to Sartre (1981), who died in 1980. “Her final words on Sartre’s death (and her own, in Adieux) were:

‘My death will not bring us together again. This is how things are. It is in itself splendid that we were able to live our lives in harmony for so long.’” (www.trincoll)

She wrote four books of memoirs, and finally completed the last one in 1971, All Said and Done.

Later in her life she became a strong advocate for the feminist movement and spoke out against the French government and their treatment of unmarried mothers who were poor and disadvantaged. Although the feminism movement did not start until the 1970’s, Simone decided it was her duty to support the movement strongly. She was also a strong atheist who felt that religion was used by people to evade the truth. Simone was extensively traveled and independently wealthy. She decided early in her life that she would not have children, and also enjoy being an intellectual equal with an intellect man. Simone had a lover, Chicago writer Nelson Algren, who encouraged her to become more broadminded about sexual discrimination, especially among the African Americans.

Simone de Beauvoir died in 1986. Some women reacted with anger with they saw that her name was below Sartre’s name. Elisabeth Badinter said, “Women, you owe her everything.” (http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/classics/story/0,6000,101568,00.html) Paul Webster wrote an obituary of Simone de Beauvoir on April 15, 1986. He summed Beauvoir by saying, “Nobody can ever say that de Beauvoir was not loyal and faithful to the things that really counted in her life, both people and ideas.” (http://books.guardian.co.uk/departments/clasics/story/0,6000,101570,00.html)