28/10/2025
Which French feminist writers have shaped your view of womanhood?
Colette for me is the epitome of independence, freedom and the hunger to be her own woman.
But all of these female writers and their stories sway the flag of feminism in their own way. Starting with top left:
-The Lover by Marguerite. It’s a complicated love story of forbidden love told through the lens of a French woman during the French occupation of Vietnam.
-Dutiful Daughter by Simone de Beauvoir. We can’t talk about French Feminism without its leading lady, Simone de Beauvoir. This memoir gives us an intimate look at the upbringing of a young Simone and how her environment shaped her into the woman she is to become.
-Bonjour Tristesse by Francoise Sagan. Françoise Sagan, penned these two short stories at the ripe age of 17, it follows Cécile, a young girl who leads a carefree life with her widowed father.
-Cherie by Colette. Set during the belle-epoque, we follow an ageing courtesan who takes on a young lover. It explores complex dynamic of courtesans, women who were wealthy and educated, yet who were not accepted into polite society - a price they had to pay for these liberties.
-The Lady and the Little Fox Fur by Violette Leduc. Leduc was a close friend of Simone de Beauvoir. Here she illustrates a woman living in poverty while the world around her moves on. It’s a novel about loneliness and imagination - and how a soul starved for company, can find meaning in the most rarest places.
-The Woman Destroyed by Simone de Beauvoir. This collection of three short stories is about women spiralling into an oblivion. What can be more relatable.
There you have it, some of my favourite French Feminism literature.
Have you read any of these books? Which would you add to this list?
