History Makers

Olympe De Gouges
1748 to 1793

Born Marie Gouze, the French playwright was most definitely  a women before her time.  Her writings reached a wide audience and she was known as an political activist, feminist and abolitionist,

Marie once wrote " I was married a man I did not love and who was neither rich nor well-born. I was sacrificed for  no reason that could make up for the repugnance I felt for this man."  in her semi-autobiographical novel Memorie de Madame de Valmont contre la famille de Flaucourt 

Gouhes most well known work is "The Rights of Women.  In which she claimed women were the equal of men in all aspects of public and  private life. To her these rights should include the right to vote, hold public office, employment, public speaking engagement, obtain "Public Hounors" property ownership, military participation, education in marriage and even in the Church.  See The Rights of Women, 1791 to read the comprehensive list of Gouhes feminist views. Such ideas were ridicule highly at the time.   However, she was otherwise not successful as an author due to her poor education in particular poor spelling and grammar, yet manage to produce several plays.

Olympe Gouhes hopes for the embracing the equality of men and women were raised when the French Revolution broke out, but she soon learn that equal rights would not be extended to women. She became more involve and vocal where even she saw injustice been done, regesiting her protest test through he writings.  Her final pieces that lead to her arrest were The Three Urns, or the Salvation of the Country, and By An Aerial Traveler which were pro the new French government.  Even so she tired to mount her defence using her early writings to demonstrate she was in support of the revolution, however it became quite evident that her ideas went far beyond what the ruling party had in mind. on November 2 1793 Gouges was sentences to death for trying to reinstate the monarchy.