Born May 7, 1748, she was among the crowd of women (and some men) who marched in the pouring rain from Paris to the palace at Versailles, demanding bread for their families.
A prolific writer and zealous advocate of human rights, she is best-known for her 1791 Declaration of the Rights of Woman and The Female Citizen, penned in response to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. She wrote, “A woman has the right to mount the scaffold. She must possess equally the right to mount the speaker’s platform.”
She was sentenced to death by the Jacobins during the Reign of Terror, and guillotined on November 3, 1793.
De Gouges leaves behind a collection of more than 30 plays (dealing with subjects ranging from the slave trade, divorce and marriage to debtors’ prisons, children’s rights and government work strategies for the unemployed), plus essays, letters and pamphlets.
In her honor, the Place Olympe de Gouges is located in Paris’ 3rd arrondissement.
To learn more about her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG3Zg12YcUQ&t=16s