de gouges declaration of the rights of woman

In 1790, Nicolas de Condorcet and Etta Palm d'Aelders unsuccessfully called on the National Assembly to extend civil and political rights to women. In 1791, new articles were added to the French constitution which extended civil and political rights to Protestants and Jews, who had previously been persecuted in France. The Declaration exposed inconsistencies of laws that treated citizens differently on the basis of sex, race, class, or religion.

The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen became a key human rights document and a classic formulation of the rights of individuals vis-a-vis the state. Prepared and proposed by the Marquis de Lafayette, the declaration asserted that all men 'are born and remain free and equal in rights' and that these rights were universal. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was adopted in 1789 by the National Constituent Assembly (Assemblée nationale constituante), during the French revolution. She was executed by guillotine during the Reign of Terror (1793–1794) for attacking the regime of the Revolutionary government and for her association with the Girondists. In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen, she challenged the practice of male authority and the notion of male-female inequality. At the same time, she began writing political pamphlet. She became an outspoken advocate against the slave trade in the French colonies in 1788. As political tension rose in France, Olympe de Gouges became increasingly politically engaged. She began her career as a playwright in the early 1780s. Olympe de Gouges (born Marie Gouze, – 3 November 1793) was a French playwright and political activist whose writings on women's rights and abolitionism reached a large audience in various countries.

De gouges declaration of the rights of woman