The Declaration of the Rights of Woman

Olympe de Gouges’s Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, 1791) was one of the most important and most radical feminist manifestos of the French Revolution. The document, modeled on the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, applied the principles of the Revolution to women, and it has remained a basic reference for the modern feminist tradition. This article examines the Declaration, the arguments of de Gouges, and the lasting influence of the work on modern feminist thought.

Olympe de Gouges

Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) was a French playwright and political activist who was one of the most important feminist thinkers of the French Revolution. Born Marie Gouze in Montauban, she was the daughter of a butcher and a servant, and she married at a young age. After the death of her husband, she moved to Paris and began a literary and political career, writing plays, pamphlets, and political tracts.

De Gouges was a passionate defender of the principles of the French Revolution, and she was particularly concerned with the way in which the Revolution had excluded women from the rights that it had proclaimed. She was a prolific writer, and she produced a number of works on behalf of various social causes, including the abolition of slavery, the rights of illegitimate children, and the rights of women.

Her most famous work, the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, was published in 1791, two years after the original Declaration of the Rights of Man. The work is a model of Enlightenment political rhetoric, and it applied the principles of the Revolution to the situation of women in a way that was both radical and persuasive.

The Structure of the Declaration

The Declaration of the Rights of Woman is structured as a parallel to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. Each article of the original declaration is restated in a way that applies to women, and the new declaration adds a number of additional articles that are specifically concerned with the situation of women.

The opening article proclaims: “Woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Social distinctions can be based only on the common good.” The article is a direct parallel to the opening article of the original declaration, and it is a clear statement of the principle of the equality of the sexes.

The subsequent articles develop the implications of the principle of equality for the situation of women. The articles proclaim the right of women to liberty, to property, to security, to resistance to oppression, to freedom of speech, to freedom of religion, and to the other rights that the original declaration had proclaimed for men.

The new declaration also includes articles that are specifically concerned with the situation of women. The articles proclaim the right of women to participate in the formation of the laws, the right of women to hold public office, the right of women to education, the right of women to control their own property, and the right of women to be protected against false accusations of immorality.

The Famous Postscript

The Declaration ends with a famous “Postscript” in which de Gouges addresses the queen, Marie Antoinette, and urges her to support the cause of women’s rights. The postscript is a remarkable document, in which de Gouges appeals to the queen as a woman and as a mother to recognize the common cause of all women and to work for the recognition of their rights.

The postscript reads in part: “Woman has the right to mount the scaffold; she must equally have the right to mount the rostrum. If the first is the mark of her criminality, the second reveals her innocence.” The postscript is a powerful statement of the principle that the rights that women claim are the same as the rights that men have, and that the denial of these rights to women is a violation of the principles of the Revolution.

The Response to the Declaration

The Declaration of the Rights of Woman was widely read and widely discussed, but it was also widely attacked. The defenders of the established order rejected the declaration as a violation of the natural order, and the defenders of the Revolution rejected the declaration as a violation of the principles of the Revolution.

The most famous attack on the Declaration came from Charles Jean François Maignet and other members of the National Convention, who argued that the rights proclaimed in the Declaration were the rights of men, not the rights of women, and that the application of these rights to women would be a violation of the natural differences between the sexes.

The attack on the Declaration was part of a broader attack on the women’s rights movement of the French Revolution. The various women’s organizations that had been established in the early years of the Revolution were banned, and the women who had been active in the Revolution were excluded from the political life of the new republic.

The Execution of Olympe de Gouges

Olympe de Gouges was arrested in 1793, during the Terror, and she was charged with various crimes against the Republic. She was tried by the Revolutionary Tribunal and was found guilty. She was executed by guillotine on November 3, 1793.

The execution of de Gouges was a tragedy, and it has been seen as a symbol of the way in which the French Revolution betrayed its own principles. The woman who had done so much to defend the principles of the Revolution, and who had applied these principles to the situation of women, was executed by the revolutionary government that claimed to embody these principles.

The execution of de Gouges did not, however, end the cause of women’s rights. The various works of de Gouges continued to be read, and her arguments for the equality of the sexes continued to be cited by the various feminist thinkers of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

The Lasting Influence

The Declaration of the Rights of Woman has had a lasting influence on the development of modern feminist thought. The work is a basic reference for the modern tradition of women’s rights, and it has been cited by the various feminist thinkers who have struggled for the recognition of the rights of women.

The Declaration of the Rights of Woman: Olympe de Gouges and French Feminism