“Trudging alone along that black road, sometimes in the teeth of wind and rain, and watching the white distant gleam of convolvulus through the park railings, gave me an exhilarating sensation of adventure.”

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.