Abstract
Simone de Beauvoir (1908–86), French philosopher, essayist, novelist, autobiogra‐pher, and political activist, is best known for her contributions to the women's movement and feminist theory. Her celebrated claim that “one is not born, but rather becomes, awoman” (1989[1949]: 267) stems from her existentialist theories of “being” that reject an intrinsic human nature. Beauvoir offers a social constructionist critique of essentialist feminist theories that laid the foundation for the contentious debates between essentialist and antiessentialist theories in the 1980s and ‘90s. Her feminism and her lifelong relationship with existentialist philosopher Jean‐Paul Sartre tend to overshadow her other works, which include six novels, short stories, a play, several books of philosophy and cultural criticism, and extensive autobiographical writings.
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