Simone de Beauvoir (1908–1986) was a French writer of great courage and integrity, who made a point of equal vocation for man and woman. In her treatise Le Deuxième Sexe (1949) she pleaded passionately for the abolition of the myth of “eternal feminine”. She was the lifelong companion of Jean-Paul Sartre {see planet  (11384)}. (M 40706) _ _.