Wright was the only speaker to note women’s absence at the 1956 Congress.

Evidence

On 19 September 1956, Wright spoke at the First International Congress of Negro Writers and Artists at the Sorbonne. There, he was the only speaker to draw attention to the almost total absence of women in the debate. He pointed out how close the congress’ key topics were to those Simone de Beauvoir had explored in The Second Sex: power struggles, the alienated gaze, self-consciousness, and the construction of oppressive myths. Feminist and anti-racist campaigners also shared the existentialist commitment to action: the ‘can-do’ belief that the status quo could be understood in intellectual terms, but should not be accepted in life. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 885

Categorization

• XREF: Aligned with the anti-racism/feminism synthesis from earlier chapters on Beauvoir and colonial critique in previous chapters.
• ADDENDUM: The ‘can-do’ existentialist commitment to action complements the themes of ‘On Sacrifice’ about agency and social structures.