Alexander Kucharsky – Collection particulière. Wikimedia
8. Olympe de Gouges
Olympe de Gouges was a social activist who began to rise to prominence during the 1780s. She was particularly outspoken against the slave trade in the French colonies and the system of patriarchy that denied women their rights. She wrote a provocative pamphlet called Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen in 1791, shortly before the French Republic was declared.
De Gouges was in favor of the revolution on the grounds that all people were created equal, regardless of race or gender, and should be given equal rights rather than be enslaved or subjected to patriarchy. However, she became disenchanted with the revolution when she realized that there was no intention of giving women equal rights as men. She was also opposed to the use of violence in all of its forms, including capital punishment, which led her to resist the execution of the king.
As the revolution continued to radicalize through the Reign of Terror, de Gouges’ writings became more and more forceful in calls for law and order to be restored rather than the ongoing violence. She was arrested for opposing the revolution and siding with the Girondin movement and denied legal representation because the National Convention considered her to be competent to represent herself. She was executed at the guillotine for attempting to reinstate the monarchy.