The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
In 1791, Olympe de Gouges published a pamphlet titled ‘The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen’. Well, it was in French, so it was actually titled ‘Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne’. A couple of years later, she was executed by guillotine as a way to warn other politically active women – to send them back to the care of their homes rather than the pursuit of equality.
As we will see, it didn’t quite work.
De Gougess husband had died well before she did, just a few years into their unhappy marriage. Actually, Marie Gouze was her name at that point, it was only after his death that she moved to Paris and changed her name to the quite grand Olympe de Gouges. She began a career in literacy, and took up the cause of fighting for the freedom of slaves in French colonies.
Her attention then turned to the 1789 French Revolution…until it became clear that the freedoms being fought for were only in the name of men and were not applicable to women. This pushed her to write the ‘Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne’, which addresses the inequalities inherent in the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen’, the central text of the French Revolution. De Gouges’ text highlighted the need for the state to recognise the rights of women, to listen to their voices and resolve an array of injustices they were subjected to because of their sex.
Her calls were answered, despite her beheading. Not for many years though. It wasn’t until 1944 that women won the right to vote in France. The power of her work inspired much of first wave feminism (the suffragettes), paving the way for the activism and change brought about in later years during second wave feminism. The modern legacy of her work is found in the ‘United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women’, which is recognised in almost every country in the world.
The other weekend I came across this wonderful little book titled – ‘The Declaration of the Rights of Women: The Originial Manifesto for Justice, Equality and Freedom’. It expresses these two documents, de Gouges’ original text and the modern UN Convention beautifully. Each article of each document is accompanied by an illustration, and quotes/poems/prose. Here is the link to it on Goodreads.
By the way - you can peek at what I read on my Goodreads profile.
Don’t worry though. You don’t need to purchase this book (although I highly recommend it) to read these two important documents. You just need to click these links:
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
And you should. You should read both documents. Now. Later this year. In the years to come. Recent world events have highlighted how unstable hard-fought rights can be. We mustn’t take for granted the sacrifice of De Gouges, the many other suffragettes, and others whose lives were dedicated to achieving human rights for all, not just for white men.
I hope you read these documents and find the same determination they had for an equal and just world.
