Olympe de Gouges

Also known as Marie Olympe de Gouges, Marie Gouze, Marie Olympe

French playwright and political activist (1748–1793)

OverviewAI-generated

Marie Gouze, known by the pseudonym Olympe de Gouges, was a French playwright, journalist, philosopher, and writer. Born in Montauban in 1748, she wrote in French and spoke Occitan, her native language. Her professional focus included abolitionism and feminism. She is the author of the notable work *Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen*. Other listed works include *Moliere chez Ninon, ou Le siècle des grands hommes, pièce episodique* and *Action héroique d'une francoise, ou, La France sauvée par les femmes*.

De Gouges adhered to deism. She died in Paris in 1793 by decapitation, a form of capital punishment. Her archives are held at the Atria Institute on gender equality and women's history. She is described in the *Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary*.

Synthesized by Vinony from 27 facts across 2 sources: Wikidata, Open Library. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 1748?
Died: 1793
Works: 57

Top works

Moliere chez Ninon, ou Le siècle des grands hommes, pièce episodique
Hē exegersē archizei apo palia
Action héroique d'une francoise, ou, La France sauvée par les femmes
Réponse au champion amèricain, ou, Colon très-aisé à connoître
Mirabeau aux Champs-Élisées

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Wikidata facts

Instance of: human
Given name: Marie
Gender: female
Citizenship: France
Place of birth: Montauban
Place of death: Paris
Occupation: author
Political party: Girondists
Languages spoken: Occitan
Native language: Occitan
Religion: deism
Field of work: feminism
Image: Marie-Olympe-de-Gouges.jpg
Convicted of: treason

Show 13 more facts

Commons category: Olympe de Gouges
date of birth: 1748-05-07
date of death: 1793-11-03
Commons Creator page: Olympe de Gouges
birth name: Marie Gouze
name in native language: Olympe de Gouges
archives at: Atria Institute on gender equality and women's history
pseudonym: Olympe de Gouges
writing language: French
manner of death: capital punishment
cause of death: decapitation
member of: Society of the Friends of Truth
P12047: unidentified flying object

Sources (11)

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Encyclopedic overview

Olympe de Gouges ( French: [ɔlɛ̃p də ɡuʒ] ; born Marie Gouze; 7 May 1748 – 3 November 1793) was a French playwright and political activist. She is best known for her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen and other writings on women's rights and abolitionism.

Born in southwestern France, de Gouges began her prolific career as a playwright in Paris in the 1780s. A passionate advocate of human rights, she was one of France's earliest public opponents of slavery. Her plays and pamphlets spanned a wide variety of issues including divorce and marriage, children's rights, unemployment and social security. In addition to her being a playwright and political activist, she was also a small time actress prior to the Revolution. De Gouges welcomed the outbreak of the French Revolution but soon became disenchanted when equal rights were not extended to women. In 1791, in response to the 1789 Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, de Gouges published her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, in which she challenged the practice of male authority and advocated for equal rights for women.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Olympe de Gouges” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.