Simone de Beauvoir
Existentialist writer and feminist theorist · 1908–1986
Beauvoir was a French novelist and philosopher whose book The Second Sex became a foundational text of modern feminism. She was active on the French left, opposed colonial war in Algeria and campaigned for abortion rights.
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Estimated from their documented words and actions. A simplification, not a verdict.
No strong recorded view on regional versus central government.
She wrote favourably of the Soviet Union in the 1950s, while also defending free expression in France.
She opposed state censorship and torture in Algeria but defended some revolutionary regimes that restricted liberties.
She saw politics in global terms, travelling widely and backing anti-colonial movements.
She opposed France's war in Algeria while supporting the independence movement's armed struggle.
She signed the Manifesto of the 121 against the Algerian war and rejected French colonial assimilation.
She was a committed socialist who saw capitalism as a source of oppression.
She supported socialist economic transformation and state-led change.
No strong recorded view on trade.
She was an atheist who regarded religion as a historical instrument of women's subordination.
She argued that gender roles are socially constructed and signed the 1971 manifesto for legal abortion.
No strong recorded view on technology.