Olympe de Gouges Dies: Feminist's Voice Silenced by Guillotine
Olympe de Gouges was guillotined in Paris on November 3, 1793, for the crime of opposing the Reign of Terror. She had written the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen in 1791, directly challenging the Revolution's exclusion of women from its promises of liberty and equality. Article 10 stated: 'Woman has the right to mount the scaffold; she must equally have the right to mount the rostrum.' The Revolution granted her the first right and denied her the second. De Gouges also opposed slavery, advocated for divorce rights, and suggested a voluntary tax on the wealthy. Robespierre considered her dangerous not because she was wrong but because she was right in ways the revolution wasn't prepared to admit. She was largely forgotten until the feminist movements of the twentieth century reclaimed her.
November 3, 1793
233 years ago
Key Figures & Places
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