View source for Olympe de Gouges

{{Short description|French playwright and activist (1746–1793)}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Olympe de Gouges
| image       = Olympe de Gouges.png
| caption     = Portrait by [[Alexander Kucharsky]]
| birth_name  = Marie Gouze
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1748|05|07|df=y}}
| birth_place = [[Montauban]], [[Quercy]], {{awrap|[[Kingdom of France]]}}
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1793|11|3|1748|5|7|df=y}}
| death_place = [[Place de la Révolution]], Paris, {{awrap|[[French First Republic]]}}
| death_cause = [[Guillotine|Execution by guillotine]]
| occupation  = {{cslist|Activist|abolitionist|[[women's rights]] advocate|playwright}}
| spouse      = {{marriage|Louis Aubry|1765|1766|end=died}}
| children    = 1
| signature   = OlympeGougesSignature.jpg
}}

'''Olympe de Gouges''' ({{IPA|fr|ɔlɛ̃p də ɡuʒ|lang|Fr-Olympe de Gouges.ogg}}; born '''Marie Gouze'''; 7 May 1748{{spnd}}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 in France|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.<ref>Hunt, p. 498</ref> 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 [[patriarchy|male authority]] and advocated for equal rights for women.

De Gouges was associated with the moderate [[Girondins]] and opposed the [[execution of Louis XVI]]. Her increasingly vehement writings, which attacked [[Maximilien Robespierre|Maximilien Robespierre's]] radical [[The Mountain|Montagnards]] and the Revolutionary government during the [[Reign of Terror]], led to her eventual arrest and execution by [[guillotine]] in 1793.

==Biography==
===Birth and parentage===
[[Image:LeFranc de Pompignan.jpg|thumb|right|[[Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis de Pompignan]], widely rumoured to be Olympe de Gouges's father]]
Marie Gouze was born on 7 May 1748 in [[Montauban]], [[Quercy]] (in the present-day [[Departments of France|department]] of [[Tarn-et-Garonne]]), in southwestern France.<ref name="Kuiper-note">{{Cite web |last=Kuiper |first=Kathleen |title=Researcher's Note: Who was Olympe de Gouges's father? |url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olympe-de-Gouges/additional-info |access-date=1 June 2021 |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en}}</ref> Her mother, Anne Olympe Mouisset Gouze, was the daughter of a [[Bourgeoisie|bourgeois]] family.<ref name="Mousset9">{{cite book |last= Mousset |first= Sophie |title= Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges |year= 2007 |publisher= Transaction Publishers |location= New Brunswick (US) & London |isbn= 978-0-7658-0345-0 |page= 9 }}</ref> The identity of her father is ambiguous. Her father may have been her mother's husband, Pierre Gouze, or she may have been the [[Legitimacy (family law)|illegitimate]] daughter of [[Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis de Pompignan]].<ref name="Kuiper-note" /> Marie Gouze encouraged rumours that Pompignan was her father, and their relationship is considered plausible but "historically unverifiable."<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last=Cole|first=John R.|title=Between the Queen and the Cabby: Olympe de Gouge's Rights of Woman|publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press|year=2011|isbn=9780773538863|location=Montreal; Kingston; London; Ithaca|pages=8–9}}</ref> Other rumours in the eighteenth century also suggested that her father might be [[Louis XV]], but this identification is not considered credible.<ref name="Kuiper-note" />

The Pompignan family had long-standing close ties to the Mouisset family of Marie Gouze's mother, Anne. When Anne was born in 1714, the eldest Pompignan son, Jean-Jacques Lefranc de Pompignan (age five), was her godfather. Anne's father tutored him as he grew. During their childhoods, Pompignan became close to Anne, but was separated from her in 1734 when he was sent to Paris. Anne married Pierre Gouze, a butcher, in 1737 and had three children before Marie, a son and two girls.<ref name="Mousset10">{{cite book|last=Mousset|first=Sophie|title=Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7658-0345-0|location=New Brunswick (US) & London|page=10}}</ref> Pompignan returned to Montauban in 1747, the year before Marie's birth.<ref name="Mousset10" /> Pierre was legally recognized as Marie's father.<ref name="Kuiper-note" /> Pierre did not attend Marie's baptism on 8 May. Her godfather was a workman named Jean Portié, and her godmother a woman named Marie Grimal.<ref name="Mousset11">{{cite book|last=Mousset|first=Sophie|title=Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7658-0345-0|location=New Brunswick (US) & London|page=11}}</ref> Pierre died in 1750.<ref name="Mousset11"/>

The primary support for the identification of Pompignan as Marie Gouze's father is found in her semi-autobiographical novel, ''{{lang|fr|Mémoires de Madame de Valmont}}'', published after Pompignan's death.<ref name="Kuiper-note" /> According to the contemporary politician {{ill|Jean-Baptiste Poncet-Delpech|fr|Jean-Baptiste Poncet-Delpech}}  and others, "all of Montauban" knew that Pompignan was Gouze's father.<ref name="Paul1989">{{cite web|last=Paul|first=Pauline|date=2 June 1989|title=I Foresaw it All: The Amazing Life and Oeuvre of Olympe de Gouges|url=http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_5.2/paul.htm|work=[[Die Zeit]]|translator=Kai Artur Diers|access-date=13 July 2007|archive-date=2 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171202094909/http://www.logosjournal.com/issue_5.2/paul.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> However, some historians consider it likely that Gouze fabricated the story for her memoirs in order to raise her prestige and social standing when she moved to Paris.<ref name=":0" />

===Early life===
[[File:Général Pierre Aubry de Gouges.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Olympe de Gouges's son, Pierre Aubry]]

Marie-Olympe de Gouges (formally Marie Gouze) was born into a wealthy family, and although her mother was privately tutored, she had no actual formal education herself.<ref>Diamond, p. 98</ref> Reportedly illiterate, she was said to dictate to a secretary.<ref>Sokolnikova, page 88</ref>

Gouze was married on 24 October 1765 to Louis Yves Aubry, a caterer, against her will.<ref name="Mousset14-15">{{cite book|last=Mousset|first=Sophie|title=Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7658-0345-0|location=New Brunswick (US) & London|pages=14–15}}</ref> The heroine of her semi-autobiographical novel {{lang|fr|Mémoires}} is fourteen at her wedding; the new Marie Aubry herself was seventeen.<ref name="Mousset14-15"/> Her novel strongly decried the marriage: "I was married to a man I did not love and who was neither rich nor well-born. I was sacrificed for no reason that could make up for the repugnance I felt for this man."<ref>{{cite book |first=Paul |last=Noack |title=Olympe de Gouges, 1748–1793: Kurtisane und Kampferin für die Rechte der Frau |trans-title=Olympe de Gouges, 1748–1793: Courtesan and Activist for Women's Rights |publisher=Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag |year=1992 |language=de |page=31 |isbn=978-3-423-30319-4 }}</ref> Marie's substantially larger fortune allowed her new husband Louis to leave his employer and start his own business. On 29 August 1766, she gave birth to their son, Pierre Aubry. That November, a destructive flood of the river [[Tarn (river)|Tarn]] caused Louis' death.<ref name="Mousset16">{{cite book|last=Mousset|first=Sophie|title=Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7658-0345-0|location=New Brunswick (US) & London|page=16}}</ref> She never married again, calling the institution of marriage "the tomb of trust and love".<ref name="auto3">{{Cite book|title=Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions|author1=Lisa L. Moore |author2=Joanna Brooks |author3=Caroline Wigginton |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0199743483|page=245}}</ref>

Known under the name Marie Aubry, after her husband's death she changed her name to Olympe de Gouges, from her surname (Gouze) and adding her mother's middle name, Olympe.<ref>Scott p. 222</ref>  Soon after, she began a relationship with the wealthy Jacques Biétrix de Rozières, a businessman from Lyon.<ref name="Hesse2006">{{Cite encyclopedia |year=2006 |title=Marie-Olympe De Gouges |encyclopedia=Europe 1789–1914: Encyclopedia of the Age of Industry and Empire |publisher=Charles Scribner's Sons |last=Hesse |first=Carla |editor-last=Merriman |editor-first=John |editor2-last=Winter |editor2-first=Jay}}</ref>

===Move to Paris===
In 1768, Biétrix funded de Gouges's move to Paris, where he provided her with an income.<ref name="Hesse2006"/> She lived with her son and her sister.<ref name="auto3"/> She socialized in fashionable society, at one point being called "one of Paris' prettiest women," and formed friendships with [[Madame de Montesson]] and [[Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans]].<ref name="Mousset27">{{cite book|last=Mousset|first=Sophie|title=Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges|publisher=Transaction Publishers|year=2007|isbn=978-0-7658-0345-0|location=New Brunswick (US) & London|page=27}}</ref> De Gouges attended the artistic and philosophical ''{{lang|fr|[[salon (gathering)|salons]]}}'' of Paris, where she met many writers, including [[Jean-François de La Harpe|La Harpe]], [[Louis-Sébastien Mercier|Mercier]], and [[Nicolas Chamfort|Chamfort]], as well as future politicians such as [[Jacques Pierre Brissot|Brissot]] and [[Marquis de Condorcet|Condorcet]]. She usually was invited to the ''{{lang|fr|salons}}'' of [[Madame de Montesson]] and the [[Fanny de Beauharnais|Comtesse de Beauharnais]], who also were playwrights.

De Gouges began her career as a writer in Paris, publishing a novel in 1784 and then beginning a prolific career as a playwright. As a woman from the province and of lowly birth she fashioned herself to fit in with the Paris establishment.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Citoyennes: Women and the Ideal of Citizenship in Eighteenth-Century France |author=Annie Smart |publisher=University of Delaware|year=2011|isbn=978-1611493559|page=121}}</ref> De Gouges signed her public letters with ''citoyenne'', the feminised version of [[citizen]]. In pre-revolutionary France there were no citizens, and authors were the subjects of the king, but in revolutionary France there were only ''citoyens''. It was in October 1792 that the Convention decreed the use of ''citoyenne'' to replace ''Madame'' and ''Mademoiselle''.<ref name="auto1">{{Cite book|title=Citoyennes: Women and the Ideal of Citizenship in Eighteenth-Century France |author=Annie Smart|publisher=University of Delaware|year=2011|isbn=978-1611493559|page=122}}</ref>

[[File:Code noir.jpg|thumb|upright|The [[Code Noir]], a decree passed by King [[Louis XIV]] in 1685. The ''Code Noir'' defined the conditions of [[slavery]] in the [[French colonial empire]] and restricted the activities of free [[Negro]]es]]

In 1788 she published ''Réflexions sur les hommes nègres'', which demanded compassion for the plight of slaves in the French colonies.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cartesian Women: Versions and Subversions of Rational Discourse in the Old Regime |url=https://archive.org/details/cartesianwomenve00hart |url-access=limited |author=Erica Harth |publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0801499982|page=[https://archive.org/details/cartesianwomenve00hart/page/227 227]}}</ref> For de Gouges there was a direct link between the autocratic monarchy in France and the institution of slavery. She argued that "Men everywhere are equal... Kings who are just do not want slaves; they know that they have submissive subjects."<ref>{{Cite book |title=Cartesian Women: Versions and Subversions of Rational Discourse in the Old Regime |url=https://archive.org/details/cartesianwomenve00hart/page/229 |url-access=limited |author=Erica Harth |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=1992|isbn=978-0801499982|page=229}}</ref> She came to the public's attention with the play ''L'Esclavage des Noirs'', which was staged at the famous [[Comédie-Française]] in 1785. Her stance against slavery in the French colonies made her the target of threats.<ref name="auto3"/> De Gouges was also attacked by those who thought that a woman's proper place was not in the theatre. The influential [[Abraham-Joseph Bénard]] remarked "Mme de Gouges is one of those women to whom one feels like giving razor blades as a present, who through their pretensions lose the charming qualities of their sex... Every woman author is in a false position, regardless of her talent." De Gouges was defiant: she wrote "I'm determined to be a success, and I'll do it in spite of my enemies." The slave trade lobby mounted a press campaign against her play and she eventually took legal action, forcing Comédie-Française to stage ''L'Esclavage des Noirs''. But the play closed after three performances; the lobby had paid hecklers to sabotage the performances.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sexual Politics in the Enlightenment: Women Writers Read Rousseau|author=Mary Seidman Trouille| publisher=SUNY Press| year=1997|isbn= 978-0791434895 |page=272}}</ref>

===Revolutionary politics===
A passionate advocate of [[human rights]], de Gouges greeted the outbreak of the Revolution with hope and joy, but soon became disenchanted when ''{{lang|fr|égalité}}'' (equal rights) was not extended to women. In 1791, influenced and inspired by John Locke's treatises on natural rights, de Gouges became part of the [[Society of the Friends of Truth]], also known as the "Social Club," which was an association whose goals included establishing equal political and legal rights for women. Members sometimes gathered at the home of the well-known women's rights advocate, [[Sophie de Condorcet]]. In 1791, in response to the [[Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen]], she wrote the ''{{lang|fr|Déclaration des droits de la Femme et de la Citoyenne}}'' ("{{lang|en|[[Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen]]}}"). In that pamphlet she expressed, for the first time, her famous statement:

<blockquote>A woman has the right to mount the scaffold. She must possess equally the right to mount the speaker's platform.<ref name="French Revolution p. 235">Longman (1989). ''Chronicle of the French Revolution'', p. 235</ref></blockquote>

This was followed by her ''{{lang|fr|Contrat Social}}'' ("{{lang|en|Social Contract}}", named after a famous work of [[Jean-Jacques Rousseau]]), proposing marriage based upon gender equality.<ref name="French Revolution p. 235"/>

In 1790 and 1791, in the French colony of [[Saint-Domingue]] (present-day [[Haiti]]), free people of colour and African slaves revolted in response to the ideals expressed in the ''Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen''.<ref name="MooreP15">{{Cite book|title= Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions|author1=Lisa L. Moore |author2=Joanna Brooks |author3=Caroline Wigginton |publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2012|isbn= 978-0199743483|page= 15}}</ref> De Gouges did not approve of violent revolution, and published ''L'Esclavage des Noirs'' with a preface in 1792, arguing that the slaves and the free people who responded to the horrors of slavery with "barbaric and atrocious torture" in turn justified the behavior of the tyrants. In Paris, de Gouges was accused by the mayor of Paris of having incited the insurrection in Saint-Domingue with the play.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Rosewater of the Revolution: Olympe de Gouges Feminist Humanism|author= Lisa Gålmark|publisher= Dela förlag|year= 2020 |isbn= 978-9163919695|page= 41}}</ref> When it was staged again in December 1792 a riot erupted in Paris.<ref>{{Cite book|title= Tropics of Haiti: Race and the Literary History of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World, 1789–1865|author= Marlene L. Daut|publisher= Oxford University Press|year= 2015 |isbn= 978-1781381847|page= 248}}</ref>

De Gouges opposed the execution of [[Louis XVI]] (which took place on 21 January 1793), partly out of opposition to [[capital punishment]] and partly because she favored [[constitutional monarchy]]. This earned her the ire of many hard-line republicans, even into the next generation—such as the 19th-century historian [[Jules Michelet]], a fierce apologist for the Revolution, who wrote, "She allowed herself to act and write about more than one affair that her weak head did not understand."<ref>J. Michelet, ''{{lang|fr|La Révolution Française}}''.</ref> Michelet opposed any political participation by women and thus disliked de Gouges.<ref>See Charles Monselet, ''{{lang|fr|Les Oubliés et les Dédaignés}}'' [{{lang|en|The Forgotten and the Scorned}}]. See also Joan Scott in ''Rebel Daughters''.</ref> In December 1792, when Louis XVI was about to be put on trial, she wrote to the National Assembly offering to defend him, causing outrage among many deputies. In her letter she argued that he had been duped—that he was guilty as a king, but innocent as a man, and that he should be exiled rather than executed.<ref>Longman (1989). ''Chronicle of the French Revolution'', p. 311</ref>

Olympe de Gouges was associated with the Gironde faction, which ultimately led to her being executed. After the execution of Louis XVI she became wary of Robespierre's Montagnard faction and in open letters criticized their violence and summary killings. She did not go to the guillotine for her feminism, as many might think. Instead her crime was spreading Federalism as a replacement for Montagnard revolutionary central rule. Revolutionary rule during the Terror was accompanied by emphasis on masculine public political authority that resulted, for example, in the expulsion of women from Jacobin clubs.<ref>Scott p. 232</ref>

===Arrest and execution===
[[File:Olympe de Gouges.jpg|thumb|right|Olympe de Gouges, 1793]]
[[File:Olympe de Gouges. Les Trois Urnes, ou Le salut de la patrie (Paris, 1793). British Library 443.a.3(7).jpg|thumb|right|''{{lang|fr|Les trois urnes}}'', the 1793 poster by Olympe de Gouges that led to her arrest and execution]]

As the Revolution progressed, she became more and more vehement in her writings. On 2 June 1793, the [[Jacobin Club|Jacobins]] of the Montagnard faction imprisoned prominent Girondins; they were sent to the guillotine in October. Finally, her poster ''{{lang|fr|Les Trois urnes, ou le Salut de la Patrie, par un voyageur aérien}}'' ("{{lang|en|The Three Urns, or the Salvation of the Fatherland, by an Aerial Traveller}}") of 1793, led to her arrest. Olympe decreed in this publication that "Now is the time to establish a decent government whose energy comes from the strength of its laws; now is the time to put a stop to assassinations and the suffering they cause, for merely holding opposing views. Let everyone examine their consciences; let them see the incalculable harm caused by such a long-lasting division...and then everyone can pronounce freely on the government of their choice. The majority must carry the day. It is time for death to rest and for anarchy to return to the underworld."<ref>De Gouges, Olympe. ''Les Trois Urnes, Ou Le Salut De La Patrie, Par Un Voyageur Aérien''. 1793. ["Urnes" is the French equivalent of ballot boxes.]</ref> She also called for an end to the bloodshed of the Revolution saying "It is time to put a stop to this cruel war that has only swallowed up your treasure and harvested the most brilliant of your young. Blood, alas, has flowed far too freely!" and warned that "The divided French... are fighting for three opposing governments; like warring brothers they rush to their downfall and, if I do not halt them, they will soon imitate the Thebans, ending up by slitting each others throats to the last man standing".<ref>De Gouges, Olympe. Les Trois Urnes, Ou Le Salut De La Patrie, Par Un Voyageur Aérien. 1793.</ref> That piece demanded a [[referendum|plebiscite]] for a choice among three potential forms of government: the first, a unitary [[republic]], the second, a [[federalism|federalist]] government, or the third, a constitutional monarchy. The problem was that the law of the revolution made it a capital offense for anyone to publish a book or pamphlet that encouraged reestablishing the monarchy.<ref>Walsh, William Shepard (1913). ''A Handy Book of Curious Information: Comprising Strange Happenings in the Life of Men and Animals, Odd Statistics, Extraordinary Phenomena, and Out of the Way Facts Concerning the Wonderlands of the Earth.'' J. B. Lippincott & Co.. p. 834</ref>

Marie-Olympe de Gouges was arrested on 20 July 1793. Although she was arrested in July, she would not meet the end of her life until November of that year.<ref>Vanpee p. 47</ref>
After her arrest, the commissioners searched her house for evidence. When they could not find any in her home, she voluntarily led them to the storehouse where she kept her papers. It was there that the commissioners found an unfinished play titled ''{{lang|fr|La France Sauvée ou le Tyran Détroné}}'' ("{{lang|en|France Preserved, or The Tyrant Dethroned}}"). In the first act (only the first act and a half remain), [[Marie Antoinette]] is planning defense strategies to retain the crumbling monarchy and is confronted by revolutionary forces, including de Gouges herself. The first act ends with de Gouges reproving the queen for having seditious intentions and lecturing her about how she should lead her people. Both de Gouges and her prosecutor used this play as evidence in her trial. The prosecutor claimed that de Gouges's depictions of the queen threatened to stir up sympathy and support for the Royalists, whereas de Gouges stated that the play showed that she had always been a supporter of the Revolution.<ref name="vanpée47">{{cite journal |last= Vanpée |first= Janie |title= Performing Justice: The Trials of Olympe de Gouges |journal= Theatre Journal |date= March 1999 |volume= 51 |issue= 1 |pages= 47–65 |jstor= 25068623 |doi= 10.1353/tj.1999.0018|s2cid= 191977456 }}</ref>

She spent three months in jail without an attorney as the presiding judge had denied de Gouges her legal right to a lawyer on the grounds that she was more than capable of representing herself. It is likely that the judge based this argument on de Gouges's tendency to represent herself in her writings.<ref name="vanpée47"/> Through her friends, she managed to publish two texts: ''{{lang|fr|Olympe de Gouges au tribunal révolutionnaire}}'' ("{{lang|en|Olympe de Gouges at the Revolutionary tribunal}}"), in which she related her interrogations; and her last work, ''{{lang|fr|Une patriote persécutée}}'' ("{{lang|en|A [female] patriot persecuted}}"), in which she condemned the Terror.<ref name="vanpée47"/>

De Gouges had acquired for her son, Pierre Aubry, a position as a vice-general and head of battalion in exchange for a payment of 1,500 livres, and he was suspended from this office after her arrest.<ref name="GoodmanP59">{{Cite book|title= Commemorating Mirabeau: 'Mirabeau aux Champs-Elysées' and other texts|author= Jessica Goodman|publisher= MHRA|year= 2017|isbn= 978-1781882184|page= 59}}</ref> On 2 November 1793 she wrote to him: "I die, my dear son, a victim of my idolatry for the fatherland and for the people. Under the specious mask of republicanism, her enemies have brought me remorselessly to the scaffold."<ref>{{Cite book|title= From Enlightenment to Romanticism: Anthology I|author1=Ian L. Donnachie |author2=Ian Donnachie |author3=Carmen Lavin |publisher= Manchester University Press|year= 2003|isbn= 978-0719066719|page= 94}}</ref>

[[File:Olympe gouges.jpg|thumb|right|The execution of Olympe de Gouges]]

On 3 November 1793, the [[Revolutionary Tribunal]] sentenced her to death, and she was executed for seditious behavior and attempting to reinstate the monarchy.<ref>{{cite journal |doi= 10.1080/13621025.2016.1229195 |title= Olympe de Gouges's trial and the affective politics of denaturalization in France |journal= Citizenship Studies |volume= 20 |issue= 8 |pages= 943–56 |year= 2016 |last1= Beauchamps |first1= Marie |url= https://dare.uva.nl/personal/pure/en/publications/olympe-de-gougess-trial-and-the-affective-politics-of-denaturalization-in-france(b22656a1-2621-4e9d-bc05-3f18827a525f).html|doi-access= free |hdl= 11245.1/b22656a1-2621-4e9d-bc05-3f18827a525f |hdl-access= free }}</ref> Olympe was executed only a month after [[Marquis de Condorcet|Condorcet]] had been proscribed, and just three days after the Girondin leaders had been guillotined. Her body was disposed of in the [[Madeleine Cemetery]].<ref>Beyern, B. ''Guide des tombes d'hommes célèbres'', Le Cherche Midi, 2008, p. 377, {{ISBN|978-2-7491-1350-0}}</ref> Olympe's last moments were depicted by an anonymous Parisian who kept a chronicle of events:

<blockquote>Yesterday, at seven o'clock in the evening, a most extraordinary person called Olympe de Gouges who held the imposing title of woman of letters, was taken to the scaffold, while all of Paris, while admiring her beauty, knew that she didn't even know her alphabet... She approached the scaffold with a calm and serene expression on her face, and forced the guillotine's furies, which had driven her to this place of torture, to admit that such courage and beauty had never been seen before... That woman... had thrown herself in the Revolution, body and soul. But having quickly perceived how atrocious the system adopted by the Jacobins was, she chose to retrace her steps. She attempted to unmask the villains through the literary productions which she had printed and put up. They never forgave her, and she paid for her carelessness with her head.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last= Mousset |first= Sophie
 |title= Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges
 |year= 2007 |publisher= Transaction Publishers
 |location= New Brunswick (US) & London
 |isbn= 978-0-7658-0345-0 |page= 99 }}
</ref></blockquote>

===Posthumous political impact===
[[File:La fournée des Girondins 10-11-1793.jpg|thumb|right|The execution of the [[Girondins]]]]
[[File:Robespierre exécutant le bourreau.jpg|thumb|Cartoon showing [[Maximilien Robespierre]] guillotining the executioner after having guillotined everyone else in France.]]

Her execution was used as a warning to other politically active women. At the 15 November 1793 meeting of the Commune, [[Pierre Gaspard Chaumette]] cautioned a group of women wearing [[Symbolism in the French Revolution#Liberty cap|Phrygian bonnets]], reminding them of "the impudent Olympe de Gouges, who was the first woman to start up women's political clubs, who abandoned the cares of her home, to meddle in the affairs of the Republic, and whose head fell under avenging blade of the law". This posthumous characterisation of de Gouges by the political establishment was misleading, as de Gouges had no role in founding the [[Society of Revolutionary Republican Women]]. In her political writings de Gouges had not called for women to abandon their homes, but she was cast by the politicians as an enemy of the natural order, and thus enemy of the ruling Jacobin party. Paradoxically, the two women who had started the Society of Revolutionary Republican Women, [[Claire Lacombe]] and [[Pauline Léon]], were not executed.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Citoyennes: Women and the Ideal of Citizenship in Eighteenth-Century France |author=Annie Smart|publisher=University of Delaware|year=2011|isbn=978-1611493559|page=144}}</ref> Lacombe, Léon and [[Theroigne de Mericourt]] had spoken at women's and mixed clubs, and the Assemblée, while de Gouges had shown a reluctance to engage in public speaking, but prolifically published pamphlets.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Citoyennes: Women and the Ideal of Citizenship in Eighteenth-Century France |author=Annie Smart|publisher=University of Delaware|year=2011|isbn=978-1611493559|page=148}}</ref> However, Chaumette was a staunch opponent of the Girondins, and had characterised de Gouges as unnatural and unrepublican prior to her execution.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Citoyennes: Women and the Ideal of Citizenship in Eighteenth-Century France |author=Annie Smart|publisher=University of Delaware|year=2011|isbn=978-1611493559|page=150}}</ref>

The year 1793 has been described as a watershed for the construction of women's place in revolutionary France, and the deconstruction of the Girondins' [[Marianne]]. That year a number of women with a public role in politics were executed, including [[Madame Roland]] and [[Marie Antoinette]]. The new ''Républicaine'' was the republican mother that nurtured the new citizen. During this time the Convention banned all women's political associations and executed many politically active women.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Citoyennes: Women and the Ideal of Citizenship in Eighteenth-Century France|author=Annie Smart| publisher=University of Delaware|year=2011|isbn=978-1611493559|page=154}}</ref> 1793 marked the start of the [[Reign of Terror]] in post-revolutionary France, where thousands of people were executed. Across the Atlantic world observers of the French Revolution were shocked, but the ideals of [[liberté, égalité, fraternité]] had taken a life of their own.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions|author1=Lisa L. Moore |author2=Joanna Brooks |author3=Caroline Wigginton |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0199743483|page=14}}</ref>

De Gouges's [[Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen]] had been widely reproduced and influenced the writings of women's advocates in the Atlantic world.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women in Higher Education: An Encyclopedia|url=https://archive.org/details/womenhighereduca00alem |url-access=limited |author1=Ana M. Martínez Alemán |author2=Kristen A. Renn |publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2002|isbn=978-1576076149|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenhighereduca00alem/page/n58 34]}}</ref> One year after its publication, in 1792, the keen observer of the French Revolution [[Mary Wollstonecraft]] published ''[[A Vindication of the Rights of Woman]]''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women in Higher Education: An Encyclopedia|url=https://archive.org/details/womenhighereduca00alem|url-access=limited|author1=Ana M. Martínez Alemán |author2=Kristen A. Renn |publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2002|isbn=978-1576076149|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenhighereduca00alem/page/n59 35]}}</ref> Writings on women and their lack of rights became widely available. The experience of French women during the revolution entered the collective consciousness.

American women began to refer to themselves as ''citess'' or ''citizeness'' and took to the streets to achieve equality and freedom.<ref name="auto">{{Cite book|title=Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions|author1=Lisa L. Moore |author2=Joanna Brooks |author3=Caroline Wigginton |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0199743483|page=16}}</ref> The same year de Gouges was executed the pamphlet ''On the Marriage of Two Celebrated Widows'' was published anonymously, proclaiming that "two celebrated widows, ladies of America and France, after having repudiated their husbands on account of their ill treatment, conceived of the design of living together in the strictest union and friendship."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions|author1=Lisa L. Moore |author2=Joanna Brooks |author3=Caroline Wigginton |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0199743483|page=297}}</ref> Revolutionary novels were published that put women at the centre of violent struggle, such as the narratives written by [[Helen Maria Williams]] and [[Leonora Sansay]].<ref name="auto"/> At the 1848 Women's Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, the rhetorical style of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen was employed to paraphrase the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] into the [[Declaration of Sentiments]],<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women in Higher Education: An Encyclopedia|url=https://archive.org/details/womenhighereduca00alem|url-access=limited|author1=Ana M. Martínez Alemán |author2=Kristen A. Renn |publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2002|isbn=978-1576076149|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenhighereduca00alem/page/n61 37]}}</ref> which demanded women's right to vote.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Women in Higher Education: An Encyclopedia|url=https://archive.org/details/womenhighereduca00alem|url-access=limited|author1=Ana M. Martínez Alemán |author2=Kristen A. Renn |publisher=ABC-CLIO|year=2002|isbn=978-1576076149|page=[https://archive.org/details/womenhighereduca00alem/page/n62 38]}}</ref>

After her execution her son Pierre Aubry signed a letter in which he denied his endorsement for her political legacy.<ref name="GoodmanP59"/> He tried to change her name in the records, to Marie Aubry, but the name she had given herself has endured.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Commemorating Mirabeau: 'Mirabeau aux Champs-Elysées' and other texts|author=Jessica Goodman|publisher=MHRA|year=2017|isbn=978-1781882184|page=35}}</ref>

==Writing==
All of Olympe de Gouges's plays and novels convey the overarching theme of her life's work: indignation at social injustices. In addition to women's rights, de Gouges engaged contested topics including the [[History of slavery|slave trade]], [[divorce]], [[marriage]], [[debtors' prison]]s, [[children's rights]], and government work schemes for the [[unemployment|unemployed]]. Much of her work foregrounded the troubling intersections of two or more issues. While many plays by women playwrights staged at the Comédie Française were published anonymously or under male pseudonyms, de Gouges broke with tradition; not only did she publish using her own name, but she also pushed the boundaries of what was deemed appropriate subject matter for women playwrights—and withstood the consequences.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Woolfrey |first=Joan |title=Olympe de Gouges (1748-1793) |url=https://iep.utm.edu/gouges/ |access-date=18 March 2024 |website=Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy}}</ref>  A record of her papers which were seized at the time of execution in 1793 lists about 40 plays.<ref>Sherman, C. ''Reading Olympe de Gouges''. Palgrave Pivot; 2013 ed., p. 51. {{ISBN|9781137346452}}</ref>

In 1784, she published an [[Epistolary novel|epistolary]] novel inspired by ''[[Les Liaisons dangereuses]]'' (1782) by [[Pierre Choderlos de Laclos]]. Her novel claimed to consist of authentic letters exchanged with her father the Marquis de Pompignan, with the names changed. "Madame Valmont" thus represented de Gouges herself, and "Monsieur de Flaucourt" was Pompignan.<ref name="Mousset26">{{cite book |last=Mousset |first=Sophie |title=Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7658-0345-0 |location=New Brunswick (US) & London |page=26}}</ref> The full title of the novel, published shortly after Pompignan's death, indicated its claim: ''{{lang|fr|Mémoires de Madame de Valmont sur l'ingratitude et la cruauté de la famille des Flaucourt avec la sienne dont les sieurs de Flaucourt on reçu tant de services}} (Madame de Valmont's Memoirs on the Ingratitude and Cruelty of the Flaucourt Family Towards her Own, which Rendered such Services to the Sirs Flaucourt).''<ref name="Mousset28">{{cite book |last=Mousset |first=Sophie |title=Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7658-0345-0 |location=New Brunswick (US) & London |page=28}}</ref>

As a playwright, she charged into the contemporary political controversies and was often in the vanguard.<ref name="auto2">{{Cite book |author=David Williams |title=The Enlightenment |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1999 |isbn=978-0521564908 |page=317}}</ref> Alongside [[Marquis de Condorcet]], de Gouges is considered one of France's earliest public opponents of slavery.

De Gouges's first staged production was originally titled ''Zamore et Mirza''; ou ''L'Heureux Naufrage'' [''Zamore and Mirza;'' or ''The Happy Shipwreck''] (1788). Drawing both praise from abolitionists and attacks from pro-slavery traders, it is the first French play to focus not only on the inhumanity of slavery but also the first to feature the first-person perspective of an enslaved individual.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Woolfrey |first=Joan |access-date=18 March 2024 |title=Olympe de Gouges (1748–1793) |url=https://iep.utm.edu/gouges/ }}</ref>

In her 1788 "Réflexions sur les Hommes Nègres" she brought to attention the horrible plight of slaves in the French colonies and condemned the injustice of the institution declaring “I clearly realized that it was force and prejudice that had condemned them to that horrible slavery, in which Nature plays no role, and for which the unjust and powerful interests of Whites are alone responsible” likewise declaring that "Men everywhere are equal... Kings who are just do not want slaves; they know that they have submissive subjects."<ref>De Gouges, Olympe. ''Réflexions Sur Les Hommes Nègres''. 1788.</ref>

In the final act of ''L'Esclavage des Noirs'' de Gouges lets the French colonial master, not the slave, utter a prayer for freedom: "Let our common rejoicings be a happy portent of liberty". She drew a parallel between colonial slavery and political oppression in France. One of the slave protagonists explains that the French must gain their own freedom, before they can deal with slavery. De Gouges also openly attacked the notion that [[human rights]] were a reality in revolutionary France. The slave protagonist comments on the situation in France "The power of one Master alone is in the hands of a thousand Tyrants who trample the People under foot. The People will one day burst their chains and will claim all its rights under Natural law. It will teach the Tyrants just what a people united by long oppression and enlightened by sound philosophy can do". While it was common in France to equate political oppression to slavery, this was an analogy and not an abolitionist sentiment.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Cartesian Women: Versions and Subversions of Rational Discourse in the Old Regime |url=https://archive.org/details/cartesianwomenve00hart |url-access=limited |author=Erica Harth |publisher=Cornell University Press|year=1992|isbn=978-0801499982|page=[https://archive.org/details/cartesianwomenve00hart/page/228 228]}}</ref>

===Political pamphlets and letters===
[[File:DDFC.jpg|thumb|upright|First page of [[Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen]]]]

Over the course of her career, de Gouges published 68 pamphlets.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Blanc |first=Olivier |title=Marie-Olympe de Gouges : une humaniste à la fin du XVIIIe siècle |date=2003 |publisher=R. Viénet |isbn=2-84983-000-3 |location=Paris |pages=244–247 |oclc=54205328}}</ref> Her first political brochure was published in November 1788, a manifesto entitled ''Letter to the people, or project for a patriotic fund''. In early 1789 she published ''Remarques Patriotiques'' setting out her proposals for [[social security]], care for the elderly, institutions for homeless children, hostels for the unemployed, and the introduction of a [[jury system]]. In this work, she highlighted and promulgated the issues facing France on the brink of revolution writing “France is sunk in grief, the people are suffering and the Monarch cries out. Parliament is demanding the Estates-General and the Nation cannot come to an agreement. There is no consensus on electing these assemblies...The Third Estate, with reason, claims a voice equal to that of the Clergy and Nobility...for the problems that get worse every day” and declared to the king that “Your People are unhappy. Unhappy!”.<ref>De Gouges, Olympe. Remarques Patriotiques. 1789.</ref> She also called upon women to "shake off the yoke of shameful slavery". The same year she wrote a series of pamphlets on a range of social concerns, such as illegitimate children. In these pamphlets she advanced the public debate on issues that would later be picked up by feminists, such as [[Flora Tristan]]. She continued to publish political essays between 1788 and 1791. Such as ''Cry of the wise man, by a woman'' in response to Louis XVI calling together the Estates-General.<ref name="auto2"/>

De Gouges wrote her famous [[Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen]] shortly after the [[French Constitution of 1791]] was ratified by King [[Louis XVI]], and dedicated it to his wife, Queen [[Marie Antoinette]]. The French Constitution marked the birth of the short-lived [[constitutional monarchy]] and implemented a status based citizenship. Citizens were defined as men over 25 who were "independent" and who had paid the [[poll tax]]. These citizens had the right to vote. Furthermore, active citizenship was two-tiered, with those who could vote and those who were fit for [[public office]]. Women were by definition not afforded any rights of active citizenship. Like men who could not pay the poll tax, children, domestic servants, rural day-laborers and slaves, Jews, actors and hangmen, women had no [[political rights]]. In transferring [[sovereignty]] to the nation the constitution dismantled the old regime, but de Gouges argued that it did not go far enough.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Citoyennes: Women and the Ideal of Citizenship in Eighteenth-Century France
|author=Annie Smart|publisher=University of Delaware|year=2011|isbn=978-1611493559|page=134}}</ref>

De Gouges was not the only feminist who attempted to influence the political structures of late Enlightenment France. But like the writings of [[Etta Palm d'Aelders]], [[Theroigne de Mericourt]], [[Claire Lacombe]], and [[Marquis de Condorcet]], her arguments fell on deaf ears. At the end of the 18th century influential political actors such as [[Honoré Gabriel Riqueti, comte de Mirabeau|Honoré Gabriel Riqueti]], [[Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord]], and [[Emmanuel Joseph Sieyès]] were not convinced of the case for equality.<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Enlightenment|author=David Williams|publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=1999|isbn=978-0521564908|page=38}}</ref>

In her early political letters de Gouges made a point of being a woman, and that she spoke "as a woman". She addressed her public letters, published often as pamphlets, to statesmen such as [[Jacques Necker]], the [[Louis Philippe II, Duke of Orléans|Duke of Orléans]], or the queen [[Marie Antoinette]]. Like other pamphlet writers in revolutionary France, she spoke from the margins and spoke of her experience as a citizen with a desire to influence the ongoing public debate. In her letters she articulated the values of the [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]], and commented on how they may be put into practice, such as [[civic virtue]], [[universal rights]], [[natural rights]] and [[political rights]]. In language and practice this was a debate among men and about men. Republicans discussed civic virtue in terms of patriotic manliness (''la vertu mâle et répub-licaine''). Women were not granted political rights in revolutionary France, thus de Gouges used her pamphlets to enter the public debate and she argued that the debate needed to include the female civic voice.<ref name="auto1"/>

De Gouges signed her pamphlets with ''citoyenne''. It has been suggested that she adopted this notion from Rousseau's letter ''To the Republic of Geneva'', where he speaks directly to two types of Genevans: the "dear fellow citizens" or his "brothers", and the ''aimables et virtueses Citoyenne'', that is the women citizens. In the public letter ''Remarques Patriotique'' from December 1788 de Gouges justified why she is publishing her political thoughts, arguing that "This dream, strange though it may seem, will show the nation a truly civic heart, a spirit that is always concerned with the public good".<ref name="SmartP123">{{Cite book|title=Citoyennes: Women and the Ideal of Citizenship in Eighteenth-Century France|author=Annie Smart|publisher=University of Delaware|year=2011|isbn=978-1611493559|page=123}}</ref>

As the politics of revolutionary France changed and progressed de Gouges failed to become an actor on the political stage, but in her letters offered advice to the political establishment. Her proposition for a political order remained largely unchanged. She expresses faith in the [[Estates General (France)|Estates General]] and in reference to the [[estates of the realm]], that the people of France (Third Estate) would be able to ensure harmony between the three estates, that is [[clergy]], [[nobility]] and the people. Despite this she expresses loyalty for the ministers [[Jacques Necker]] and [[Charles Alexandre de Calonne]]. De Gouges opposes [[absolute monarchy|absolutism]], but believed France should retain a [[constitutional monarchy]].<ref name="SmartP123"/>

In her open letter to Marie-Antoinette, de Gouges declared:

<blockquote>I could never convince myself that a princess, raised in the midst of grandeur, had all the vices of baseness... Madame, may a nobler function characterize you, excite your ambition, and fix your attention. Only one whom chance had elevated to an eminent position can assume the task of lending weight to the progress of the Rights of Woman and of hastening its success. If you were less well informed, Madame, I might fear that your individual interests would outweigh those of your sex. You love glory; think, Madame, the greatest crimes immortalize one as much as the greatest virtues, but what a different fame in the annals of history! The one is ceaselessly taken as an example, and the other is eternally the execration of the human race.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions|author1=Lisa L. Moore |author2=Joanna Brooks |author3=Caroline Wigginton |publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=978-0199743483|page=247}}</ref></blockquote>

Public letters, or pamphlets, were the primary means for the working class and women writers to engage in the public debate of revolutionary France. The intention was not to court the favour of the addressee, often a public figure. Frequently these pamphlets were intended to stir up public anger. They were widely circulated within and outside France. De Gouges's contemporary [[Madame Roland]] of the Gironde party became notorious for her ''Letter to Louis XVI'' in 1792. In the same year de Gouges penned ''Letter to Citizen Robespierre'', which [[Maximilien Robespierre]] refused to answer. De Gouges took to the street, and on behalf of the French people proclaimed "Let us plunge into the Seine! Thou hast need of a bath&nbsp;... thy death will claim things, and as for myself, the sacrifice of a pure life will disarm the heavens."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Romantic Correspondence: Women, Politics and the Fiction of Letters |author=Mary A. Favret |publisher=Cambridge University Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0521604284|pages=114, 119}}</ref>

==Legacy==
{{Liberalism in France}}
Although she was a celebrity in her lifetime and a prolific author, de Gouges became largely forgotten, but then rediscovered through a political biography by Olivier Blanc in the mid-1980s.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Sexual Politics in the Enlightenment: Women Writers Read Rousseau|author=Mary Seidman Trouille| publisher=SUNY Press| year=1997|isbn= 978-0791434895|page=237}}</ref>

On 6 March 2004, the junction of the Rues Béranger, Charlot, de Turenne, and de Franche-Comté in Paris was proclaimed the Place Olympe de Gouges. The square was inaugurated by the mayor of the [[3rd arrondissement of Paris|3rd arrondissement]], Pierre Aidenbaum, along with then first deputy mayor of Paris, [[Anne Hidalgo]]. The actress [[Véronique Genest]] read an excerpt from the Declaration of the Rights of Woman. 2007 French presidential contender [[Ségolène Royal]] expressed the wish that de Gouges's remains be moved to the [[Panthéon, Paris|Panthéon]]. However, her remains—like those of the other victims of the Reign of Terror—have been lost through burial in communal graves, so any reburial (like that of [[Marquis de Condorcet]]) would be only ceremonial.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

She is honoured in many street names across France, in the Salle Olympe de Gouges exhibition hall in rue Merlin, Paris, and the Parc Olympe de Gouges in [[Annemasse]].{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The 2018 play The Revolutionists by [[Lauren Gunderson]] centers on de Gouges and a dramatized version of her life as a playwright and activist during the [[Reign of Terror]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dramatists Play Service, Inc. |url=https://www.dramatists.com/cgi-bin/db/single.asp?dark=&farce=&female=all&historical=&key=5692&keysearch=lauren%20gunderson&limit1Comedy=&limit1Drama=&limitFull=&limitMusical=&limitResult=all&limitResult1=allgenres&limitShort=&male=all&melodrama=&mystery=&options=all&romantic=&satire=&thriller=&total=all&tragedy= |access-date=26 July 2022 |website=www.dramatists.com}}</ref>

==Selected works==
* ''Zamore et Mirza, ou l’heureux naufrage'' (Zamore and Mirza, or the Happy Shipwreck) 1784<ref name="Mousset29">{{cite book |last=Mousset |first=Sophie |title=Women's Rights and the French Revolution: A Biography of Olympe de Gouges |publisher=Transaction Publishers |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-7658-0345-0 |location=New Brunswick (US) & London |page=29}}</ref>
* ''Le Mariage inattendu de Chérubin'' (The Unexpected Marriage of Cherubin) 1786<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Gouges |first1=Olympe |title=Le Mariage Inattende de Chérubin  |url=https://www.olympedegouges.eu/le_mariage_inattendu.php |access-date=2 November 2021 |archive-date=2 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102134225/https://www.olympedegouges.eu/le_mariage_inattendu.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''L’Homme généreux'' (The Generous Man) 1786<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Gouges |first1=Olympe |title=L'Homme généreux |url=https://www.olympedegouges.eu/homme_gen.php |access-date=2 November 2021 |archive-date=2 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102134227/https://www.olympedegouges.eu/homme_gen.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''Molière chez Ninon, ou le siècle des grands hommes'' (Molière at Ninon, or the Century of Great Men) 1788<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Gouges |first1=Olympe |title=Molière chez Ninon |url=https://www.olympedegouges.eu/ninon.php |access-date=2 November 2021 |archive-date=5 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105082646/https://www.olympedegouges.eu/ninon.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* [https://fr.wikisource.org/wiki/R%C3%A9flexions_sur_les_hommes_n%C3%A8gres Réflexions sur les hommes nègres] (1788) (Wikisource)
* ''Les Démocrates et les aristocrates'' (The Democrats and the Aristocrats) 1790<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Gouges |first1=Olympe |title=Les Démocrates et les aristocrates |url=https://www.olympedegouges.eu/demosandaristos.php |access-date=2 November 2021 |archive-date=2 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102134227/https://www.olympedegouges.eu/demosandaristos.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''La Nécessité du divorce'' (The Necessity of Divorce) 1790<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Gouges |first1=Olympe |title=La Nécessité du divorce |url=https://www.olympedegouges.eu/le_divorce.php |access-date=2 November 2021 |archive-date=2 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102134236/https://www.olympedegouges.eu/le_divorce.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''Le Couvent'' (The Convent) 1790<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Gouges |first1=Olympe |title=Le Couvent |url=https://www.olympedegouges.eu/le_couvent.php |access-date=2 November 2021 |archive-date=2 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102134225/https://www.olympedegouges.eu/le_couvent.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''Mirabeau aux Champs Élysées'' (Mirabeau at the Champs Élysées) 1791<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Gouges |first1=Olympe |title=Mirabeau aux Champs Élysées |url=https://www.olympedegouges.eu/mirabeau_champs.php |access-date=2 November 2021 |archive-date=2 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211102134230/https://www.olympedegouges.eu/mirabeau_champs.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>
* ''La France sauvée, ou le tyran détrôné'' (France saved, or the Dethroned Tyrant) 1792<ref>{{Cite book|last=de Gouges|first=Olympe de|url=https://uw.pressbooks.pub/lafrancesauvee/|title=La France Sauvée ou le Tyran Détrôné: A Dramaturgical Casebook|date=20 June 2019|language=en}}</ref>
* ''L'Entrée de Dumouriez à Bruxelles'' (The Entrance of Dumouriez in Brussels) 1793<ref>{{cite web |last1=de Gouges |first1=Olympe |title=Entrée de Dumouriez à Bruxelles |url=https://www.olympedegouges.eu/dumouriez.php |access-date=2 November 2021 |archive-date=5 November 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211105085902/https://www.olympedegouges.eu/dumouriez.php |url-status=dead }}</ref>

==Portrayals==
* ''The Revolutionists'', play by [[Lauren Gunderson]] which premiered at [[Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park]] in February 2016 with Lise Bruneau in the role of Olympe<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.laurengunderson.com/all-plays/the-revolutionists|title=The Revolutionists - Fesisty Feminist Comedy, 2 Acts, 100 minutes|publisher=www.laurengunderson.com|access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref>{{,}}<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.abouttheartists.com/productions/80761-the-revolutionists-at-cincinnati-playhouse-in-the-park-thompson-shelterhouse-theatre-2016|title=The Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park presents a world premiere of The Revolutionists by Lauren Gunderson (author) at Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park Thompson Shelterhouse Theatre, 962 Mt. Adams Circle Cincinnati, OH, Feb 6 – Mar 6, 2016|publisher=www.abouttheartists.com|access-date=2 November 2024}}</ref>
* ''[[Flashback (2021 film)|Flashback]]'', a [[Caroline Vigneaux]] film released in November 2021 on [[Amazon Prime Video]] with [[Sylvie Testud]] in the role of de Gouges.
* ''Olympe'', play by Frank Salin where she is interpreted on stage by [[Firmine Richard]] at the [[Festival d'Avignon]] ("Off" Festival) in July 2024.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.festivaloffavignon.com/spectacles/3748-olympe|title=Olympe|publisher=www.festivaloffavignon.com|access-date=31 October 2024}}</ref>
* {{ill|Olympe, une femme dans la Révolution|fr|italic=yes}} [''Olympe, a woman in the Revolution''] TV movie by Matthieu Busson and Julie Gayet, where she is portrayed by [[Julie Gayet]] (2024).

==See also==
{{Portal|France|Feminism}}
* [[List of civil rights leaders]]
* [[List of women's rights activists]]
* [[The Women's March on Versailles]]
* [[Women's Petition to the National Assembly]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* Bergès, Sandrine (2022). ''Olympe de Gouges'', {{doi|10.1017/9781009023702}}. Cambridge University Press.

==External links==
{{Commons category|Olympe de Gouges}}
{{Wikisourcelang|fr|Olympe de Gouges}}
{{Wikiquote}}
* [https://data.bnf.fr/11905505/olympe_de_gouges/ Olympe de Gouges] on [[Data.bnf.fr]]
* [https://www.olympedegouges.eu A website containing English translations of de Gouges's works]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041019110242/http://www.quercy.net/hommes/ogenglish.html An extensive article about Olympe de Gouges]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041011032318/http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/gouges.html An excerpt from the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen]
* {{cite book |author=Daniel Cazes |title=Obras feministas de François Poulain de la Barre (1647–1723): estudio preliminar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XX-LAa3pZpYC&q=Olympe+de+Gouges+Mirabeau++La+Fayette&pg=PA36 |publisher=UNAM |year=2007 |page=36 |isbn=978-9703246137 |author-link=Daniel Cazes }}
* [https://historyofwomenphilosophers.org/project/directory-of-women-philosophers/de-gouges-olympe-1748-1793/ Olympe de Gouges: bibliographical and biographical references.] – [[Center for the History of Women Philosophers and Scientists]]

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