Olympe de Gouges
Also known as Marie Olympe de Gouges, Marie Gouze, Marie Olympe
French playwright and political activist (1748–1793)
AI overview
Olympe de Gouges was a French playwright and political activist who lived during the revolutionary period and became known for advocating women's rights, most famously through her "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen" written in 1791. She was executed during the Reign of Terror in 1793, but her work challenging gender inequality became influential in the long history of feminist thought and women's movements.
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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
via Open Library + Wikidata
Listeners · Last.fm
- Listeners
- 21
- Total plays
Article
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.