For International Womens' Day: Feminist Quotes by Simone de Beauvoir

IWD was yesterday, March 8. We still have a long way to go ...

Welcome to today’s Literary Ladies Lite Sunday edition. International Women’s Day was celebrated yesterday, March 8. We still need it, as we still need a Women’s History Month (every March). Sure, it’s important to acknowledge women’s achievements, to remember those who would otherwise be forgotten, and to acknowledge that the challenges and struggles are far from over.

But on the flip side, it would be ridiculous (even scary) if there was an International Men’s Day or a Male History Month. This little thought experiment is a painful reminder of the historic “less than” status of women.

Viewed from a global perspective, there’s still a long way to go. A survey by the World Economic Forum from 2023 showed that only 14 countries have full equality for women — according to their laws, at least. Social and cultural equality aren’t factors that can be quantified. The U.S. and U.K are outside of this list of 14. I can’t speak to the U.K., but in the U.S., there’s still a significant pay gap, there are only 26 female senators out of 100, and everyone can see how opposed the population is to having a woman president.

What would Simone de Beauvoir (1908 – 1986) — French author, existential philosopher, political activist, feminist, and social theorist — have to say about all this? Probably much of the same as she did in 1949 (sigh …), when her most famous work, The Second Sex was published. This sampling of quotes from The Second Sex have me thinking about how far women still have to go to achieve full equality at work, home, and in the world. Thoughts and opinions welcome!

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Espousing ideas that were considered radical when first published, The Second Sex made Simone de Beauvoir an internationally recognized intellectual force to be reckoned with. Considered de Beauvoir's most enduring work, The Second Sex is still read and studied as an essential manifesto on women’s oppression and liberation.

In addition to this nonfiction masterwork, she was also the author of memoirs, essay collections, and novels, all drawing on her sharp observations of human nature and reflecting her particular philosophical views.

Always curious and academically inclined, de Beauvoir majored in philosophy at the Sorbonne in Paris. She also studied Greek, logic, ethics, sociology, and psychology. Famously, she and fellow existentialist philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre were in a committed (and complicated) open relationship that endured until his death.

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“It is perfectly natural for the future woman to feel indignant at the limitations posed upon her by her sex. The real question is not why she should reject them: the problem is rather to understand why she accepts them.”