“Women, rouse yourselves! The tocsin of reason resounds through the whole universe: recognize your rights. The powerful empire of nature is no longer surrounded by prejudices, fanaticism, superstition and lies.”
~ Olympe de Gouges
Every revolution unfolds with an unambiguous chapter through unexceptional scope. They transform into the point of intemperance and terminate by the emergence of strong audacious voices who uphold law and order through mettlesome personalities. One such personality is Olympe de gouges, a feminist from the era of French revolution who had , outstandingly forward thoughts and radical opinions. A female advocate and activist who demanded equal rights for women’s freedom, liberty and wealth. She fought until she was executed for bringing awareness and asking for equality.

She summoned ordinary perspective regarding number of matters, especially the role of female citizens through her pamphlet named Declaration des droits de la femme et de la Citoyenne (Declaration of the Rights of Women and female Citizens) in 1791. The pamphlet deals with enormous subjects and social issues which she wrote in response to the Declaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen (Declaration of rights of man and of the male citizen). She addressed social issues that extended from infrastructure to divorce and also asserted maternity hospitals and the rights of orphaned children and of unmarried mothers. She emphasized on the sociopolitical issue of gender inequality in France. She was convinced that the government owes a duty of equal protection under law towards its citizens.

The declaration opens with the Preamble where De Gouges sought for women’s place in the National Assembly and considered women as the Supreme Being. She emphasized that females also have absolute sacrosanct rights like males. De Gouges believed that where there is right there is duty and responsibility. So, she configured those rights and responsibilities in her declaration.

Furthermore, she believed that solidarity and cooperation should prevail. She was one of the former women to ever plead for women to be treated in the society equally as men. She alleged against slavery and death penalty. Proposed better taxation plans such that wealth can be divided more justly. She raised divorce laws, wrote plays that outstandingly highlighted contemporary concerns.

The First right that she demanded for women is that every woman was born free thus should have as equal rights as men, and if so there arises any distinctions then it should be only on the basis of common utility.

In the eleventh right Olympe demands for the right of “free communication of thoughts and opinions”. As their liberty assured them in being recognised by their fathers name it should be allowed for the citizens to be free to call themselves the mother of their children. A brutal preconceived opinion should not be pressurized upon a woman to hide the truth (unmarried women having children). Neither does this right give any authority to women to lie about paternity. Moreover, the declaration in Article11 affirms the gender relationship in regard with maternity, paternity and sexuality which was contradicting with the idea that was prevailing in the society pre-revolution.

The fourteenth right stated that every female and male citizen should have the right to be signified and given exhibition to them or to their representative about the necessity of public taxes. The citizens should also have the right to agree upon them only if they had equal division of not just wealth but information about and the span of tax collection.
The last and 17th article of the declaration stated the right to property to a woman regardless of her marital status. In the declaration, she further argues that upon divorce property should be distributed equally between the parties involved regardless of the gender they belong to. The declaration mentions that the right over the property cannot be taken from both of them without reasonable cause.
The last part of the declaration is titled as “Social Contract between Men and Women”. Under the contract she again affirms that a husband and wife’s wealth should be equally distributed. Property should be divided among all the children equally regardless of the bed from which they belong to. Also, in case the couple gets divorced, they should divide their property equally and she titled it as a marriage contract.
Likewise,she believed although marriage is a divine relation, yet it is a social contract between two people, where men get everything but these women are only left with ostensible contentment. A man and a woman must be equal even in terms of their marriage. She presumed a happy government needs the direction of both men and women. And even widows, young girls and unmarried girls should be treated equally and not mercilessly with false promises, she advocated for legally enforced child support especially for the females.
At the end of the contract De Gouges urged to make laws to safeguard widows and girls against men making false promises. The last argument of the declaration challenges men, who considered women as inferior beings and argued to scientifically assess the effect of joining men and women in equal political rights.
The postscript of the declaration is a request for women to raise their voice against the inequality. It instigates women to fight for their rights and get back their possession and position in the society. Olympe requested her fellow women to wake up and stop pretending to be blind to how unjustly men have been treating them. She goes on asking if anyone has seen any advantage the fellow females ever received since the revolution. It is with the help of a female that the nation can be populated so that the nation can have more men ,but these men have been ill treating them, continuously.

From the declaration, we conclude that it aimed to impetrate women against the injustice prevailing in the society. The declaration favored human right laws, natural laws and reason and challenged the conventional views. Though the declaration of the first feminist in the modern era could not serve its purpose at that time but later it was admired by many others. Olympe De Gouges ,an epitome of courage, was a genius ahead of time as her vision of equality among all the citizens of France is considered as a revolutionary idea of that time. Her declaration inspired and influenced many female activists of different eras to fight the battle for restoration of human rights and equal rights among all the genders.

Aishwarya Says:

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