Katherine Astbury, a Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick, brings Olympe de Gouges’s revolutionary spirit to life. They discuss de Gouges’s bold advocacy for women's rights during the French Revolution, especially her Declaration asserting women’s equality. The conversation highlights her innovative methods, challenges in a male-dominated theater, and the impact of her ideas on modern feminism. They also reflect on her tragic execution and the resurgence of interest in her legacy, solidifying her role as a pioneering voice for gender equality.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Olympe's Birth
Olympe de Gouges, born Marie Gouze, was officially the daughter of a butcher.
She believed herself to be the illegitimate daughter of the Marquis Lefranc de Pompignan.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Early Life and Widowhood
Olympe de Gouges was born in Montauban, France, where Occitan was the common language.
She married at 17, was widowed, and moved to Paris.
insights INSIGHT
Advantages of Widowhood
Widowhood provided Olympe de Gouges with freedom and autonomy.
As a married woman, she would have needed her husband's permission to publish.
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Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen
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Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges' "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen" is a powerful feminist text that challenges the exclusion of women from the rights outlined in the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It directly addresses the hypocrisy of a society that allows women to be executed but denies them political participation. The declaration asserts the equality of women and men, advocating for their equal rights in all aspects of life, from political representation to property ownership. It highlights the injustices faced by women and calls for a society where gender equality is not just a principle but a reality. The document remains a landmark achievement in feminist thought and continues to inspire movements for gender equality worldwide.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French playwright who, in 1791, wrote The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen. This was Olympe de Gouges (1748-93) and she was responding to The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen from 1789, the start of the French Revolution which, by excluding women from these rights, had fallen far short of its apparent goals. Where the latter declared ‘men are born equal’, she asserted ‘women are born equal to men,’ adding, ‘since women are allowed to mount the scaffold, they should also be allowed to stand in parliament and defend their rights’. Two years later this playwright, novelist, activist and woman of letters did herself mount the scaffold, two weeks after Marie Antoinette, for the crime of being open to the idea of a constitutional monarchy and, for two hundred years, her reputation died with her, only to be revived with great vigour in the last 40 years.
With
Catriona Seth
Marshal Foch Professor of French Literature at the University of Oxford
Katherine Astbury
Professor of French Studies at the University of Warwick
And
Sanja Perovic
Reader in 18th century French studies at King’s College London
In Our Time 