 |
| Olympe de Gouges by Alexandre Kucharski (1741-1819) |
Location: 270 Rue Saint Honoré
English translation
"Born in Montauban on May 7, 1748, Olympe de Gouges, widowed at 18, moved to Paris, where her contemporaries attested to her beauty. Self-educated, she completed her intellectual training to write an abundant body of work, both theatrical and political. Inspired by the natural rights of humankind, she declared herself opposed to slavery, and called for shelters for “the old people without strength, children without support and widows”. Driven by a warm and lucid feminism, in September 1791 she published a “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the [Female] Citizen”, a veritable defence of “this sex, once despicable and respected, and since the Revolution, respectable and despised”. Settled here, in a pied-à-terre close to the Assembly, she declared: “No one should be disturbed for their opinions, even fundamental ones: a woman has the right to mount the scaffold, she must also have the right to mount the rostrum”. Tried, without a lawyer, for offending the sovereignty of the people, she was guillotined on November 3, 1793." (Translated by DeepL and ChatGPT)
Background notes
- Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) was a French playwright, political activist, and early feminist. She was born in Montauban, a town in southwestern France, with the birth name Marie Gouze, and married at the age of 16 to Louis Aubry, a much older man. Their marriage was reportedly unhappy, and Aubry died a short time later, leaving her a widow at just 18. His death freed her to move to Paris, where she reinvented herself under the name "Olympe de Gouges" and pursued her intellectual and literary ambitions.
- The Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen was written in 1789 during the early stages of the French Revolution. It became a foundational document for modern human rights but excluded women. Olympe de Gouges directly responded to this exclusion with her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791, structured as a critique and parallel to the male-centric original, highlighting the hypocrisy of the Revolution's egalitarian ideals that failed to include half the population. It also proposed specific reforms, such as granting women the right to vote, access education, and participate in public office.
- Olympe de Gouges criticises the shifting societal attitudes and hypocrisy toward women. Before the Revolution, women were considered inferior ("despicable") but had some influence in society through informal means, often “respected” in social or domestic roles. After the Revolution, despite the rhetoric of liberty and equality, women were given no political rights and were marginalised (respectable yet scorned or despised). This phrase highlights her view of the Revolution as a missed opportunity for gender equality. The quote also uses a clever rhetorical device, pairing "méprisable"(despicable) with "respecté"(respected) and then flipping them to "respectable" and "méprisé"(despised).
- She settled here (270 Rue Saint Honoré) near the National Assembly of France (which was then in the Tuileries in the Salle du Manège), the revolutionary legislative body in power at the time.
- The quote from her Declaration of the Rights of Woman emphasises freedom of expression and equality, arguing that if women can be subjected to execution ("mount the scaffold"), they should also have the right to participate in public life and politics ("mount the rostrum"). She challenges the double standards of Revolutionary France.
- She was charged specifically with sedition for posting a federalist-leaning political poster that criticised the Jacobin government and leaders like Robespierre. As a perceived enemy of the Revolution she was denied legal representation and was executed by the order of the Revolutionary Tribunal, under the influence of the Jacobins, for her alleged betrayal of the people. Her execution occurred at the time known as the Reign of Terror, noted for its extreme violence and repression under the Jacobins.
- Olympe de Gouges is now celebrated as a pioneering feminist and human rights advocate. Her works remain influential in discussions of equality and justice.