Other 20th Century Feminists

Benoîte Groult

Benoîte Groult is a French feminist writer.  Born in 1920, she was raised in Paris.  She studied literature until 1953 and went on to a career as a journalist.  Groult has published at least seven books.  Most deal with feminist issues such as misogyny and discrimination of women.  Groult has also written about the history of feminism.  One of her novels, Les vaisseaux du cœur, inspired the a 1992 film by Andrew Birkin called The Salt on Our Skin.  Groult's novels have a role in feminism.  They explore how fictional women choose to handle the feminist issues that appear in the novels and may influence Groult's audience.

Françoise Giroud

Françoise Giroud was a French writer, journalist, screenwriter, and politician.  She was born in Switzerland in 1916 to immigrant Jewish Turkish parents.  Giroud began working in cinema in the 1930s and went on to a career in screenwriting.  She wrote about thirty books during her life and was a journalist.  She was the editor of Elle magazine and L'Express, a magazine that she co-founded.  In the 1970s she began to become involved in French politics.  One of her goals was to "get France out of its rut", this goal was inspired by her visits to America after World War II.  One of the positions she held was Minister of Culture.  Giroud had experience in many different occupations.  I think her influence in popular French magazines really helped her express her ideas for her country.  She seems to have been a well loved female icon in France.

Julia Kristeva

Julia Kristeva is a Bulgarian-French philosopher, psychoanalyst, feminist, and novelist.  Kristeva was born in 1941 and moved to France in the 1960s.  After publishing her first book, Semeiotikè, in 1969, she became very influential as a critical analyst of cultural theory and as a feminist writer.  Kristeva is a leading French feminist like Simone de Beauvoir.  Some of her ideas are controversial even to feminists.  I am do not feel that Kristeva is super heroic, but her writings and ideas are certainly important.  She brings up new thoughts about feminism and challenges feminist ideas, probably to keep other feminists thinking about what they believe is important for women today and women in the future.

Click these links for more on these women!

Julia Kristeva Wikipedia

Françoise Giroud Wikipedia

Benoîte Groult Wikipedia