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The publication of Simone de Beauvoir's "Le Deuxieme Sex, Vol 2" (The Second Sex) in 1949 will always remain a watershed moment in the History of Feminist Thought.
Adopting an adapted behaviourist approach to feminist thought, de Beauvoir proposed that the reason for the male dominance of society lay not in a seperate 'feminine' psychology as some had proposed, but rather in an overt system of oppression instituted by males and enforced through laws and culture.
Beauvoir was born in France in 1908, a contemporary of philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre, with whom she shared a 50-year relationship. She attended the Sorbonne University in Paris, where she met Sartre, gaining her agregation in philosophy in 1929. Following this, she taught in schools and lectured on a part-time basis before launching a monthly literary review along with Sartre in 1945, "Le Temps Modernes".
Baeuvoir began her published writing career with a work of fiction, "L'Invitee" (She Came to Stay) in 1943, but turned to writing philosophy with "Pour une Morale de l'ambiguite" (The Ethics of Ambiguity) in 1947 and following this with "The Second Sex" two years later. Beauvoir continued to hop between fiction and non-fiction, philosophy and essays, but throughout all ran her defining vein of existentialist thought and an awareness of "the other". Her work "Les Mandarins", published in 1954 is generally considered her most accomplished work of fiction, and resulted in her winning the Prix Goncourt award.
She also built up a vast library of autobiographical work from 1956 until the late 1970's, prominent amongst which was were "Memoires d'ue jeune fille rangee" (Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter) and "Tout Compte Fait" (All Said and Done)
At the age of 41, The Second Sex was published building upon the ideas born during the earlier sufragette movement but dramatically shifting the focus of the woman's liberation movement. The book argued that men constructed society based upon the premise that woman were 'the Other', establishing a society with an architecture that necessarily excluded women. For woman to overcome this, she argued, women need to construct the meaning of their own lives in an existential context divorced from the external male-constructed paradigm.
Despite being accepted as a era-defining work by the woman's movement, the male-dominated philosophy establishment were slow to realise its importance. Many prominent philosophers choose to reference Beauvoir only in terms of Sartre, dismissing her as an adjunct to his work on existentialism and not a philosopher in her own right, although the work of the two exhibited a clear thematic divergence.
The relationship between Sartre and Beauvoir, perceived by many to be unfairly weighted towards Sartre, often undermined her claims to be taken seriously as a primary mover of feminist thought. Five years before her death, Beauvoir wrote "La Ceremonie des Adieux" (A Farewell to Sartre) wherein she elaborated on their relationship and narrated the last few years of Sartre's life, a work that was well received in literary circles.
Despite being initially dismissed by philosophers and academic's, an increasing number of reputable sources began to testify to the value of Beauvoir's work, culminating perhaps in Time Magazine naming "The Second Sex" one of its top ten non-fiction books of the Century. At the same time, Life magazine named Beauviour one of the top 100 most influential people of the millenium.
Beauvior died in Paris on April the 14th, 1986, thirteen years before her work was to gain far more widescale recognition than was ever achieved during her lifetime.
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