Élisabeth Badinter

Élisabeth Badinter
Élisabeth Badinter in 2015
Born	Élisabeth Bleustein-Blanchet March 5, 1944 (1944-03-05) (age 73) Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Citizenship	French
Occupation	Author, philosopher, historian, professor
Known for	Literary works in humanities and women's history
Net worth	US$ 1.8 billion (est.)
Board member of	Publicis Groupe
Spouse(s)	Robert Badinter (m. 1966)
Children	3

Élisabeth Badinter (née Bleustein-Blanchet; 5 March 1944, Boulogne-Billancourt) is a French philosopher, author and historian.

She is best known for her philosophical treatises on feminism and women's role in society. She is an advocate of liberal feminism and women migrant workers's rights in France. A 2010 Marianne news magazine poll named her France's "most influential intellectual", primarily on the basis of her books on women's rights and motherhood.

Badinter is the largest shareholder of Publicis, a multinational advertising and public relations company, and the chairwoman of its supervisory board. According to Forbes, she is one of the wealthiest French citizens with a fortune of around US$1.8 billion in 2012.

Badinter is the daughter of Sophie Vaillant and Marcel Bleustein-Blanchet, founder of Publicis. Sophie Vaillant was the granddaughter of Édouard Vaillant, a French political leader and social activist. Sophie's mother was raised as a Roman Catholic in a middle class upbringing, and later converted to Judaism following her marriage.

Elisabeth and her two sisters were raised by parents who believed in the equality of the sexes. She received her secondary education from L'école alsacienne, a private school in Paris. During adolescence, Badinter read Simone de Beauvoir's the Second Sex, which profoundly influenced her views, inspiring her pursuit of a doctorate in philosophy at Sorbonne University. She is a specialist in French history of the Age of Enlightenment.

After her studies, Badinter taught at the École Polytechnique. Her first book titled, L'Amour en plus, was published in 1980 and raises the question of whether maternal love is an exclusively natural instinct or a tendency reinforced in the cultural context, in which the behaviour of motherly affection is expected.