Simone de Beauvoir Alexandru T. Mitrán and Cristina Rubio I am Simone de Beauvoir, and I was born in Paris in 1908, the place where I later died in 1986. Sometimes life is not the sweetest of rides, and some people have it easier than others. For example, when I was born, women were considered inferior and did not have much of a say, but when I died, women were able to vote and express freely their opinions. My life was not the best one someone could imagine, because although I was born in a quite wealthy family, later on the economic crisis after the First World War forced my grandfather to declare the bankruptcy of his bank. This dishonour brought us worse life conditions compared to before. I was a very smart girl, always the top student in every class. My childhood and teen years were full of amazing friends I cheered and loved, but I was rebellious as I declared myself atheist because as I claimed many times “religion is just a way to subjugate humanity”. As bright as I was, I could not escape the many facts that made me as a woman inferior in those times. Something in particular I could not forget was how often my father reminded me that he wanted a boy, and how my family was depending on me and my sister’s studies to live on just because “We were women”. After graduating in 1929 with a degree in philosophy I decided what my future would be… I would be a teacher and writer who would change the world for the better showing the struggles of women in our society.
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