--- description: Simone de Beauvoir is one of the leaders, innovators, activists, entertainers, athletes and artists who defined the last century. title: Simone de Beauvoir: 100 Women of the Year image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91cd2340b242757d/698a0af3db2987c4bf265040/social-1949_Simonede-Beauvoir.jpg?branch=production --- * [World](/section/world/) ## World Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # 1949: Simone de Beauvoir Mar 5, 2020 11:35 AM CUT  Albert Harlingue—Roger Viollet Collection/Getty by [TIME Staff](/author/time-staff/) ## TIME Staff Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close Mar 5, 2020 11:35 AM CUT Simone de Beauvoir was born in 1908 into an upper-class Catholic family. While studying for the competitive agrégation exam in philosophy, which she passed in 1929, she met Jean-Paul Sartre, the great love of her life. In 1949, she published [_The Second Sex_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/030727778X/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=030727778X&linkId=1afdaeb635b07265b6fe43eed9f521f7 "undefined") and revolutionized feminist thought. She won France’s highest literary prize in 1954 for her novel [_The Mandarins_](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0393318834/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0393318834&linkId=8ff5eba8c797d6d5e8d182e30443e838 "undefined") and, in 1971, wrote the text of the [Manifesto of the 343](https://time.com/5459995/manifesto-343-abortion-france/ "undefined"), a French petition to legalize abortion. At 16, I stumbled upon an image of de Beauvoir sitting in Café de Flore in Paris with a stack of books. “She’s a famous author,” my mother told me. I went to the library and borrowed _The Second Sex,_ expecting an erotic book that would answer my burning questions. The first few pages were a disappointment. This wasn’t a book about love or sex, nor a treatise on pleasure. But I kept going. It was a revelation. De Beauvoir exposed a long-hidden truth: that there is no female nature. She consulted biology, history, mythology, literature, ethnology, medicine and psychoanalysis to question the roles assigned to women. The book told me that I control my destiny. If there is no fixed female essence, then we too are only what we do. _The Second Sex_ provided me with weapons to understand, to defend, to respond and to persuade. It gave me the desire to write, an exercise in reclaiming the self. De Beauvoir knew: “Freedom is an inexhaustible source of discovery, and every time we give it a chance to develop, we enrich the world.” _—Leïla Slimani, translated from French by Gretchen Schmid_ _Slimani is the author of_ [The Perfect Nanny](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143132172/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0143132172&linkId=2d5052c587b89084b747dbd7121daab2 "undefined") _and_ [Adèle](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0143132180/ref=as%5Fli%5Fqf%5Fasin%5Fil%5Ftl?ie=UTF8&tag=time037-20&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=0143132180&linkId=f40761133aed1be3c1eeff09771116c8 "undefined"). _Her upcoming book is_ [Sex and Lies](https://www.amazon.com/Sex-Lies-Stories-Womens-Intimate/dp/0143133764 "undefined")_._  de Beauvoir in Paris in 1948.Simone de Beauvoir, Paris. 1948\. Photographic color print, 25 x 36 cm. AM1992-154\. Repro-photo: Georges Meguerditchian. © IMEC, Fonds MCC, Dist. R © CNAC/MNAM/Dist. RMN-Grand Palais / Art Resource, NYImage Reference:ART400886MN-Grand Palais/ Gisèle Freund --- _This article is part of_ [_100 Women of the Year_](https://time.com/100-women-of-the-year/ "undefined")_, TIME’s list of the most influential women of the past century. Read more_ [_about the project_](https://time.com/5793734/time-100-women-of-the-year-issue/ "undefined")_, explore the_ [_100 covers_](https://time.com/5793732/time-100-women-of-the-year-covers/ "undefined") _and sign up for our_ [_Inside TIME newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/newsletters?newsletter%5Fname=INSIDE%5FTIME&source=article-woy-footer "undefined") _for more._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5793540/simone-de-beauvoir-100-women-of-the-year/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5793540/simone-de-beauvoir-100-women-of-the-year/"},"headline":"1949: Simone de Beauvoir","datePublished":"2020-03-05T11:35:47.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-24T08:20:47.214Z","description":"Simone de Beauvoir is one of the leaders, innovators, activists, entertainers, athletes and artists who defined the last century.","url":"https://time.com/5793540/simone-de-beauvoir-100-women-of-the-year/","keywords":["Women of the Year"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91cd2340b242757d/698a0af3db2987c4bf265040/social-1949_Simonede-Beauvoir.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91cd2340b242757d/698a0af3db2987c4bf265040/social-1949_Simonede-Beauvoir.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"SOCIAL - Women of the Year: 1949_Simonede-Beauvoir","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5793540/simone-de-beauvoir-100-women-of-the-year/","name":"1949: Simone de Beauvoir"}}]}] ```