An outspoken political activist, writer and social theorist, in 1949 de Beauvoir wrote The Second Sex, an ahead-of-its-time book credited with paving the way for modern feminism. In the influential (and at the time, extremely controversial) book, de Beauvoir critiques the patriarchy and social constructs faced by women. The Second Sex was banned by The Vatican and even deemed "pornography" by some—a fearless start to the fight for feminism.
