Simone de Beauvoir

In Our Time: Philosophy

BBC

History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 22 October 2015

⏱️ 46 minutes

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Summary

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Simone de Beauvoir. "One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman," she wrote in her best known and most influential work, The Second Sex, her exploration of what it means to be a woman in a world defined by men. Published in 1949, it was an immediate success with the thousands of women who bought it. Many male critics felt men came out of it rather badly. Beauvoir was born in 1908 to a high bourgeois family and it was perhaps her good fortune that her father lost his money when she was a girl. With no dowry, she pursued her education in Paris to get work and in a key exam to allow her to teach philosophy, came second only to Jean Paul Sartre. He was retaking. They became lovers and, for the rest of their lives together, intellectual sparring partners. Sartre concentrated on existentialist philosophy; Beauvoir explored that, and existentialist ethics, plus the novel and, increasingly in the decades up to her death in 1986, the situation of women in the world. With Christina Howells Professor of French and Fellow of Wadham College at the University of Oxford Margaret Atack Professor of French at the University of Leeds And Ursula Tidd Professor of Modern French Literature and Thought at the University of Manchester Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about in our time, and for
0:04.4	our terms of use please go to BBC.co.uk.
0:08.8	I hope you enjoy the program.
0:11.0	Hello, quote, one is not born but rather becomes a woman, end of quote. So wrote Simone de Beauvoir in her best
0:17.7	known and most influential work, The Second Sex, her exploration of what it means to be a woman in a world defined by men.
0:25.0	Published in 1949, it was an immediate success with thousands of women who bought it,
0:30.0	much less so with some of the male critics.
0:32.0	Beavoir was born in France in 1908 to a high bourgeois family and some commentators say that
0:38.0	it was her good fortune that her father lost his fortune when she was a girl.
0:41.8	With no dowry she pursued her education to get work and in a key
0:44.9	exam to allow her to teach philosophy came second only to Jean-Paul's Sandra. He was re-taking
0:50.3	it. They became lovers and for the rest of their lives together intellectual
0:53.6	spiring partners. Sartre concentrated on existentialist philosophy.
0:57.8	Boba explored that and existential Essex, plus, she wrote the novel, the most successful, was the
1:03.7	Mandarin's and increasingly in the decades up to her death in 1986 she wrote about
1:08.9	the situation of women in the world. With me to discuss Simone de Beauvoir R. Christina Howells, Professor of French and Fellow of
1:16.0	Warden College at the University of Oxford, Margaret Aitach, Professor of French at the University of Leeds,
1:22.3	and Ursula Tid, Professor of Modern French Literature
1:24.7	and Thought at the University of Manchester.
1:27.6	Christina Howell, can you give us something of Bobois' family background?
1:32.1	Yes, well as you say she had a bourgeois background,
1:35.3	quite a conventional family, younger sister who she was extremely fond of,
	...

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