declaration of the rights of woman and the female citizen

Mothers, daughters, sisters, representatives of the Nation, all demand to be constituted into a national assembly.

To be decreed by the National Assembly in its last sessions or in those of the next legislature.

Her campaigning brought her to the attention of the Robespierre’s Committee of Public Safety and in November 1793, she was tried and convicted of sedition and executed by guillotine.ĭECLARATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN AND THE FEMALE CITIZEN Over a five-year period before her death De Gouges wrote scores of pamphlets in which she called for greater equality and social justice, the creation of a welfare state, divorce, and the abolition of the death penalty. She also criticised the denial of equality to black slaves and the denial of voting rights to all women and to men who were unable to pay a poll tax linked to voting rights. She wrote a large number of pamphlets challenging the revolutionary leadership for their selective interpretation of the principles of equality. After the 1789 French revolution she became critical of the way the revolutionaries refused to extend equal rights to one half of the population, namely women. Today, as part of our On the Shoulders of Giants series, we republish the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen’ which was written in 1791 by the French playwright and political activist Olympe de Gouges.ĭe Gouges was a republican, a feminist and an anti-slavery campaigner. 'Declaration Of The Rights Of Woman And Of The Female Citizen' - Olympe de Gouges

Declaration of the rights of woman and the female citizen