- Lived:
- 1908–1986 · Paris, France
- Tradition:
- Existentialism; existential ethics; the founding philosophy of modern feminism
- The Big Idea:
- Nobody is born with a fixed essence — "woman" is a situation built by civilization, not a destiny written in biology — and real freedom is only possible when you will the freedom of others along with your own.
- In their words:
- "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman."
- If you remember one thing:
- The philosopher the twentieth century filed as "Sartre's companion" wrote the ethics he never managed, the book that launched modern feminism, and the first great philosophy of old age — and it took the world half a century to notice she was the major mind in the room.