Simone de Beauvoir was often overshadowed in her own lifetime by her partner, Jean-Paul Sartre. Since her death in 1986, however, Beauvoir’s reputation as one of the twentieth century’s most important thinkers and a pioneer of modern feminism has been firmly established.

The main problem Beauvoir faces today is misunderstanding rather than neglect. Much of the commentary on Beauvoir’s work ignores the dialogue with Marxism in which she was engaged. Beauvoir identified the many ways in which gender and class oppression were linked and stressed the need for a broad emancipatory movement based on socialist principles.

Emma McNicol is a research fellow at the Monash Gender and Family Violence Prevention Centre. This is an edited transcript from Jacobin Radio’s Long Reads podcast. You can listen to the interview here.