French existentialist philosopher whose The Second Sex (1949) is the foundational text of modern feminist theory.
Closely associated with
Jean-Paul Sartre (lifetime partner and existentialist co-founder) and Albert Camus (existentialist contemporary in Paris).
For an intellectual contrast, see
Camille Paglia, American cultural critic and Sexual Personae author — Paglia argues for biological-essentialist roots of gender that Beauvoir's social-construction view — 'one is not born, but rather becomes, a woman' — explicitly rejects. The two are the cleanest constructed-vs-essentialist poles in feminist theory.
The standard scholarly entry points to Simone de Beauvoir's work:
Toril Moi (Duke, James B. Duke Distinguished Professor) — Simone de Beauvoir: The Making of an Intellectual Woman (1994);
Margaret A. Simons (Southern Illinois University, Emerita) — Beauvoir and The Second Sex (1999);
Kate Kirkpatrick (Oxford, Regent's Park College) — Becoming Beauvoir: A Life (2019).
These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Simone de Beauvoir.