“I didn't know the first thing about the people around me, but that didn't matter: I was in a new world; and I had the feelings that at last I had put my finger on the secret of freedom.”

French writer, social theorist, and feminist activist

Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer, social theorist, and feminist activist. She is closely associated with existentialism and with the development of feminist thought. Although she did not describe herself as a philosopher, her work had a major influence on feminist existentialism and feminist theory. Her writings are often read in the context of those ideas, rather than as part of a formal philosophical career.