Dans la lignée de Beauvoir: Elisabeth Badinter

Abstract

As Benoîte Groult noted, Elisabeth Badinter ‘a une place très prestigieuse dans notre paysage intellectuel’ and called her ‘la grande féministe de notre temps’.¹ This is a view supported by the 2010 Marianne poll, which named her ‘l’intellectuelle la plus influente auprès des Français’² making her one of the most high-profile women studied in this book. Dubbed ‘Beauvoir’s spiritual heir’³ by Catherine Rodgers, Elisabeth Badinter is known for her work on a range of subjects including studies on the age of enlightenment,⁴ maternity and motherhood,⁵ gender and the evolution of French feminism.⁶ She shares many of the core values of the protagonists in this book such as a commitment to women’s rights and the defence of Republican principles, themes which motivate her interventions in fiercely contested issues in the public domain. These achievements and the recognition she has gained as a result have seen her included in the 2002 edition of Julliard and Winock’s dictionary. While this is not necessarily the final arbiter, inclusion in the dictionary is nevertheless a public symbol of acceptance.