Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) was a playwright and political activist during the French Revolution. While her country was reimagining its political future, the equal rights the revolutionaries promised did not include women. So she fought back.
Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) was a playwright and political activist during the French Revolution. While her country was reimagining its political future, the equal rights the revolutionaries promised did not include women. So she fought back.
This month, we’re highlighting Women of Resistance. Whether fighting tyranny, oppression, sexism, racism, reproductive control, or any number of other ills, these women created paths for change.
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Hello! From Wonder Media Network, I’m Jenny Kaplan and this is Womanica.
This month on Womanica, we’re highlighting women who led extraordinary lives of resistance. Whether fighting tyranny, oppression, sexism, racism, or reproductive control these women created paths for change.
Today’s woman of resistance was a playwright and political activist during the French Revolution. While her country was reimagining its political future, the equal rights the revolutionaries promised did not include women. So she fought back.
Please welcome Olympe de Gouges.
Born Marie Gouze in 1748, Olympe grew up comfortably and relatively wealthy in southern France.
When Olympe was a teenager, she was forced to marry a caterer named Louis Aubry. After just a year of marriage, she was widowed. Looking for a fresh start, she adopted her mother’s middle name, chose a new last name, and moved to Paris with her infant son, Pierre. After her forced marriage, she staunchly opposed the institution. She called it, “the tomb of trust and love.”
Upon moving to Paris around 1768, Olympe quickly became involved in the intellectual and literary scenes. She had little formal education, but she was literate and took an interest in reading about and discussing politics.
Before Olympe made her mark as a political writer, she wrote plays. An admirer, the writer Louis-Sébastien Mercier, helped her publish many of them. She even saw her work performed onstage at the national theater of France.
She wrote her first play, “The Generous Man,” in 1785. It examined women’s powerlessness in a male-dominated society. Her first stage production in 1789, “Black Slavery; or the Happy Shipwreck” showcased her stance against slavery. It was the first French play to broach such subject matter and was very contentious. Abolitionist groups praised it, while hecklers tried to sabotage the production. It shut down after only three performances.
At the time, most women playwrights had to publish their work anonymously, unless the subject matter was considered suitable for their gender. Olympe’s plays, which critiqued various forms of injustice… were not considered suitable. She published them under her own name anyway. Many reviewers reacted negatively to her work. Some claimed she could not have written them because she was illiterate. One critic wrote, “to write a good play, one needs a beard.”
Olympe also wrote essays and pamphlets arguing for the expansion of human rights. She supported divorce and sexual liberation for woman. She advocated for a tax system that would address economic inequality. She believed France should establish a constitutional monarchy. Her writings were in conversation with other Enlightenment thinkers promoting liberty, progress, and tolerance in the years leading up to the French Revolution.
1789’s “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen,” which would later become the preamble to France’s new constitution, outlined the expanded rights French citizens would be owed in the new republic. Despite women’s involvement in the Revolution, women weren’t mentioned in the document at all.
So in September 1791, Olympe published a response, “Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen.” The original document was 17 articles long, and she rewrote them point by point to argue that women deserve the same rights and citizenship as men. She wrote, “A woman has the right to mount the scaffold. She must possess equally the right to mount the speaker’s platform.”
The First Republic of France was established in September 1792, and the revolution only intensified from there. Thousands were killed during the Reign of Terror from 1793 to 1794. Opposed to violence in all forms, Olympe spoke out against the executions of King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. This stance was seen as pro-royalist, and she was arrested by revolutionary guards in July 1793.
On November 3, Olympe was sentenced to death. She was executed by guillotine in the Place de la Concorde. Olympe’s revolutionary spirit and writings inspired many other feminists for centuries to come.
All month, we’re highlighting women of resistance. For more information, follow us on Facebook and Instagram @womanicapodcast.
Special thanks to Liz Kaplan, my favorite sister and co-creator.
As always, we’re taking a break for the weekend. Talk to you Monday!