Born Olympe Marie Gouze on May 7, 1748, in Montauban, France. Her parents were Anne Olympe Mouisset-Gouze & Pierre Gouze, a butcher. Though it is rumored that Olympe's biological father was actually, Jean-Jacques Lefranc, the Marquis de Pampignon. When she was only 16, Olympe married, Louis Aubry & soon after gave birth to son, Pierre Aubrey-de Gouges. But the marriage was short lived & when her husband died suddenly, Olympe de Gouges, moved to Paris & vowed never to remarry.
Olympe became involved in a plethora of political causes, everything from road improvements to divorce, maternity hospitals & rights of orphaned children & unmarried mothers; she wrote prolifically about the various issues that concerned her. Among her plays was, L'Esclavage des noirs (Slavery of the Blacks), which was staged at the Theatre Francais, in Paris. In 1791, as the French Revolution raged on, Olympe published, Declaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (Declaration of the Rights of Woman & the Female Citizen), in reply to the Declaration of the Rights of Man & the Male Citizen, which had been adopted by the French National Assembly two years earlier. In her pamphlet, Olympe asserts that not only do women have equal rights to men, but children born outside of marriage should be treated the same as ones born "legitimately", in matters of inheritance.
Olympe sided with the less radical Girondins who were the political opponents of the, Montagnards, defended Louis XVI & called for a plebiscite, to allow for citizens to choose their form of government. After the fall of the Girondins in the summer of 1793, Olympe was arrested and put on mock trail. On November 4, 1793, aged 45, Olympe de Gouges was beheaded via guillotine.
Olympe de Gouges is considered one of the first women to speak up about women's rights, decades before the feminist movements of the 19th century, in countries like, Great Britain, USA, Canada & Germany.
Side notes:
Girondins- a loosely knit political faction during the French Revolution, active from 1791-93 in the Legislative Assembly & National Convention. They campaigned for the end of the monarchy, but resisted the revolution which was plunging France into chaos.
Montagnards- along with the Girondins were apart of the Jacobin movement, they were also a more radical group. They had control of the government during the height of the revolution in 1793-94.
Plebiscite- direct vote of members of an electorate or important public question, in reference to something like a change in the constitution.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olympe-de-Gouges
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Female Rebels & Activists
Non-Fiction"We need women who are so strong they can be gentle, so educated they can be humble, so fierce they can be compassionate, so passionate they can be rational and so disciplined they can be free" ...
