“The misfortune is that although everyone must come to [death], each experiences the adventure in solitude. We never left Maman during those last days... and yet we were profoundly separated from her.”

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.