Simone de Beauvoir
The Feminist Philosopher
Intro
Simone de Beauvoir was a French writer, feminist, social theorist, and existential philosopher. She is best known for her groundbreaking ideas surrounding feminism; her book, The Second Sex, is said to mark the beginning of second wave feminism across the globe. In her book, Beauvoir argues that throughout history, women have become classified as the Other, which has allowed women to remain oppressed. She advocates for their liberation.
De Beauvoir’s ideas fiercely challenged the societal norms and expectations of her time. Her second contribution to the feminist movement was a petition, entitled Manifesto of the 343, which she authored and signed in 1971; this act of gathering 343 women to come forward with their experiences paved the way for the legalization of birth conrtol and abortion in France. Together, de Beauvoir’s book, petition, and will to fight for gender equality changed the face of feminism, and society, at the time. She is now recognized as one of the great feminist icons of the 20th century, whose legacy continues to shape discussions on individual freedom and inspire political activism.
The point is not for women simply to take power out of men’s hands, since that wouldn’t change anything about the world. It’s a question precisely of destroying that notion of power.
- Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Dr. Sekoul Krastev is a decision scientist and Co-Founder of The Decision Lab, one of the world's leading behavioral science consultancies. His team works with large organizations—Fortune 500 companies, governments, foundations and supernationals—to apply behavioral science and decision theory for social good. He holds a PhD in neuroscience from McGill University and is currently a visiting scholar at NYU. His work has been featured in academic journals as well as in The New York Times, Forbes, and Bloomberg. He is also the author of Intention (Wiley, 2024), a bestselling book on the science of human agency. Before founding The Decision Lab, he worked at the Boston Consulting Group and Google.
