Simone de Beauvoir Prize
Encyclopedia
The Simone de Beauvoir Prize is an international human rights
prize for women's freedom, awarded since 2008 to individuals or groups fighting for gender equality
and opposing breaches of human rights. It is named after the French
author
and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir
, known for her 1949 women's rights
treatise The Second Sex
.
The prize was founded by Julia Kristeva
on January 9, 2008, the 100th anniversary of de Beauvoir's birth. It amounts to €
20,000 and is funded by Éditions Gallimard
and Culturesfrance
.
Julia Kristeva
, philosopher, is the head of the Simone de Beauvoir prize committee.
According to the organizers:
Julia Kristeva
is the founder and head of the Simone de Beauvoir prize committee.
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
prize for women's freedom, awarded since 2008 to individuals or groups fighting for gender equality
Gender equality
Gender equality is the goal of the equality of the genders, stemming from a belief in the injustice of myriad forms of gender inequality.- Concept :...
and opposing breaches of human rights. It is named after the French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and philosopher Simone de Beauvoir
Simone de Beauvoir
Simone-Ernestine-Lucie-Marie Bertrand de Beauvoir, often shortened to Simone de Beauvoir , was a French existentialist philosopher, public intellectual, and social theorist. She wrote novels, essays, biographies, an autobiography in several volumes, and monographs on philosophy, politics, and...
, known for her 1949 women's rights
Women's rights
Women's rights are entitlements and freedoms claimed for women and girls of all ages in many societies.In some places these rights are institutionalized or supported by law, local custom, and behaviour, whereas in others they may be ignored or suppressed...
treatise The Second Sex
The Second Sex
The Second Sex is one of the best-known works of the French existentialist Simone de Beauvoir. It is a work on the treatment of women throughout history and often regarded as a major work of feminist literature and the starting point of second-wave feminism. Beauvoir researched and wrote the book...
.
The prize was founded by Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the University Paris Diderot...
on January 9, 2008, the 100th anniversary of de Beauvoir's birth. It amounts to €
Euro
The euro is the official currency of the eurozone: 17 of the 27 member states of the European Union. It is also the currency used by the Institutions of the European Union. The eurozone consists of Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg,...
20,000 and is funded by Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard
Éditions Gallimard is one of the leading French publishers of books. The Guardian has described it as having "the best backlist in the world". In 2003 it and its subsidiaries published 1418 titles....
and Culturesfrance
Culturesfrance
Culturesfrance is a project of the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture and Communication charged with promoting French culture around the world...
.
Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the University Paris Diderot...
, philosopher, is the head of the Simone de Beauvoir prize committee.
According to the organizers:
The prize is awarded every year to a remarkable personality whose courage and thoughts are examples for everybody, in the spirit of Simone de Beauvoir who wrote: "The ultimate end, for which human beings should aim, is liberty, the only capable [thing], to establish every end on."
Recipients
- 2011 – Lyudmila UlitskayaLyudmila UlitskayaLyudmila Evgenyevna Ulitskaya is a critically acclaimed modern Russian novelist and short-story writer. She was born in the town of Davlekanovo in Bashkiria on February 21, 1943...
, Russian novelist and civil rights activist
- 2010 – Ai Xiaoming, Chinese videographer and professor at Sun Yat-sen UniversitySun Yat-sen UniversitySun Yat-sen University, also unofficially referred to as Zhongshan University , is a prominent university located mainly in Guangzhou, China. The University is named after Dr...
, and Jianmei Guo, Chinese lawyer and founder of the Women's Law Studies and Legal Aid Center at the Peking UniversityPeking UniversityPeking University , colloquially known in Chinese as Beida , is a major research university located in Beijing, China, and a member of the C9 League. It is the first established modern national university of China. It was founded as Imperial University of Peking in 1898 as a replacement of the...
School of Law.
- 2009 – One Million SignaturesOne Million SignaturesOne Million Signatures for the Repeal of Discriminatory Laws , also known as Change for Equality, is a campaign by women in Iran to collect one million signatures in support of changing discriminatory laws against women in their country.Activists of the movement...
, a campaign by the Women's rights movement in IranWomen's rights movement in IranThe Iranian women's movement is based on the Iranian women's social movement for women's rights. This movement first emerged some time after the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1906...
, demanding changes to discriminatory laws in IranIranIran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
.
- 2008 – Taslima Nasreen, BangladeshBangladeshBangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
i writer and Ayaan Hirsi AliAyaan Hirsi AliAyaan Hirsi Magan Ali is a Somali-Dutch feminist and atheist activist, writer, politician who strongly opposes circumcision and female genital cutting. She is the daughter of the Somali politician and opposition leader Hirsi Magan Isse and is a founder of the women's rights organisation the AHA...
, DutchNetherlandsThe Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
feminist, writer and politician.
Prize committee
The current prize committee is composed of approximately 20 internationally known figures, including several writers, sociologists, philosophers, journalists and politicians.Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva
Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, literary critic, psychoanalyst, sociologist, feminist, and, most recently, novelist, who has lived in France since the mid-1960s. She is now a Professor at the University Paris Diderot...
is the founder and head of the Simone de Beauvoir prize committee.
List of committee members
The committee members for 2009 award were, in alphabetical order, as follows:- Elisabeth BadinterÉlisabeth BadinterÉlisabeth Badinter is a French author, feminist, historian, and professor of Philosophy at the École Polytechnique in Paris....
, author, professor of PhilosophyPhilosophyPhilosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational... - Gerard Bonal, author
- Annie ErnauxAnnie ErnauxAnnie Ernaux is a French writer.She won the Prix Renaudot in 1984 for her book La Place, an autobiographical narrative focusing on her relationship with her father and her experiences growing up in a small town in France, and her subsequent process of moving into adulthood and away from her...
, author - Claire EtcherelliClaire EtcherelliClaire Etcherelli is a French novelist who has won Femina Prize * for her novel Elise, or the real life *-Bibliography:*Elise ou la vraie vie...
, author - Elizabeth FallaizeElizabeth FallaizeElizabeth Fallaize was a British academic who was Pro-Vice Chancellor of the University of Oxford and a French studies scholar....
, professor of French at Oxford University - Madeleine Gobeil-Noel, former director of arts at UNESCOUNESCOThe United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations...
- Michel Kail, publisher
- Liliane Kandel, sociologist
- Ayse Kiran, physician at Hacettepe UniversityHacettepe UniversityHacettepe University is a major state university in Ankara, Turkey.The University has two main campuses. The first is located in the old town of Ankara and hosts the Medical Centre, and the second is the Beytepe Campus, which is 13 km from the city centre...
, AnkaraAnkaraAnkara is the capital of Turkey and the country's second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of , and as of 2010 the metropolitan area in the entire Ankara Province had a population of 4.4 million....
, TurkeyTurkeyTurkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe... - Claude LanzmannClaude LanzmannClaude Lanzmann is a French filmmaker and professor at European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland.-Biography:Lanzmann attended the Lycée Blaise-Pascal in Clermont-Ferrand. He joined the French resistance at the age of 18 and fought in Auvergne...
, filmmaker - Bjorn LarssonBjörn LarssonBjörn Larsson is a Swedish game director, executive producer and game designer. Björn founded Iridon Interactive in 1998 publishing and producing titles including Total Soccer 2000 and Pure Pinball. In 2004, Björn rebranded Iridon to Legendo Entertainment to focus on computer and video games based...
, author - Liliane Lazar, author, Simone de Beauvoir institute in the USA
- Annette Levy-Willard, journalist
- Anne-Marie LizinAnne-Marie LizinAnne-Marie Lizin is a Belgian politician. She used to be member of the Socialist Party but was banned from the party after a corruption case. She was the first female President of the Belgian Senate...
, politician, former Belgian Senate president - Kate MillettKate MillettKate Millett is an American lesbian feminist writer and activist. A seminal influence on second-wave feminism, Millet is best known for her 1970 book Sexual Politics.-Career:...
, American feminist - Yvette Roudy, former women's rights minister in France
- Danièle SallenaveDanièle SallenaveDanièle Sallenave is a French novellist and journalist. In April 2011, she became a member of the Académie française.She won the Prix Renaudot in 1980 for her novel Les Portes de Gubbio....
, author, Journalist - Josyane SavigneauJosyane SavigneauJosyane Savigneau is a journalist and writer for Le Monde, born on 14 July 1951 in Châtellerault, France.Le Monde is a French daily evening newspaper with a circulation of 371,803...
, journalist for Le Monde. - Alice SchwarzerAlice SchwarzerAlice Schwarzer is the most prominent contemporary German feminist. She is founder and publisher of the German feminist journal EMMA.-Biography and positions:...
, German feminist - Annie Sugier, president of the feminist association (association féministe)
- Linda Weil-Curiel, lawyer
- Anne Zelensky, president of the League of Women Law (la Ligue du Droit des femmes)