Why is Simone de Beauvoir known as the forerunner of contemporary feminism?

Born and educated in Paris, Simone de Beauvoir was among the first women permitted to complete a programme of study at the Ecole Normale Superieure. Through her lifelong friendship with Sartre, another philosopher, she contributed significantly to the development and expression of a philosophy known as existentialist philosophy.

Simone de Beauvoir is best known as the foremother of contemporary feminism. Born in 1908, she rejected religion and conformity in her teens, and then turned to philosophy, becoming a professor in 1929. Her landmark book ‘The Second Sex’, was published in 1949, and later translated into at least a dozen languages. By the time of her death in 1986, the book had sold more than a million copies in the US alone. Her works of fiction focus on women who take responsibility for themselves by making life-altering decisions. The many volumes of her own autobiography exhibit the application of similar principles.