Olympe De Gouges Essay

Olympe de Gouges: One of the First Feminist of the History

Marie Gouze (Olympe de Gouges) was born in Montauban, France on May 7 of 1793. Olympe was born into a family belonging to the petty bourgeoisie; her father was a butcher and her maternal grandfather owned a business of cloths. At the age of seventeen years, Olympe de Gouges was forced to marry an older man. Olympe’s only son named Pierre Aubrey was born from this union. After the death of her husband and completely disappointed with the meaning of marriage, Olympe decided to move to Paris and give a good education to her only child.

Despite of her limited intellectual knowledge, Olympe became a writer, playwright, pamphleteer and political activist . Perhaps by the failure of her first and only marriage which she described as “the tomb of love”, Olympe de Gouges never again got married. Olympe dedicated her life to defend the rights of minorities by giving special attention to the precarious situation of the slaves and the lack of freedoms suffered by women in France. The social criticism, which was widely abounded in the texts written by Olympe de Gouges, not only put Olympe’s work in the public eye, it also boosted her fame throughout France.

One of the main issues

addressed by Olympe in her works was the precarious situation of the slaves. With the acquisition by France of many colonies in the Americas, slavery became a routine and a normal activity for the French aristocracy. The most significant work of Olympe on the issue of slavery was published in Paris in 1789 and was called "The slavery of the negroes” . The publication of this book sparked a broad social criticism especially in aristocratic circles and other powerful sectors that controlled the business of slavery. The book was adapted for the stage and the staging was quickly censored and banned. Although all the setbacks, Olympe de Gouges was not intimidated and continued writing and criticizing everything she considered unfair in the France of the seventeenth century.
“The Declaration of the Rights of Women “was undoubtedly the most important work of Olympe de Gouges .

Inspired by the Declaration of” The Rights of Man and Citizen” in which the women had been excluded, Olympe drafted this document advocating for the civil liberties of women. Through the declaration of the rights of women, Olympe de Gouges demanded the right of women to education, the right to vote, and above all, the right to freedom of expression. Unfortunately, the declaration did not get a favorable acceptance. Despite being written in a historical moment in which social democracy was advocated and the fact that women contributed so much to the French revolutionary process, the declaration of the rights of women was

forgotten.
In 1793 Olympe de Gouges was arrested and imprisoned . In an historical moment known as the era of terror, Olympe was accused of sympathizing with the Girondins and sentenced to death by guillotine. On November 3 of1973, Olympe de Gouges was executed thus becoming the first woman to be guillotined after the Queen Marie Antoinette. Unfortunately that same year all political activities were forbidden to women in France. However, one century after Olympe de Gouges death, Europe finally decided to rescue Olympe’s ideas and claim the women right to vote.
The ideas of Olympe de Gouges remain in force even though it has been more than two centuries of her death. Olympe de Gouges is an example not only for women but for all people in general. Olympe de Gouges taught us how to enforce our rights with justice and equality. Her legacy transcended beyond a simple written declaration and planted the foundations that would allow the future generations to transform society.