Olympe De Gouges Declaration Of The Rights Of Woman

Equality
Born in the year of 1748, as the daughter of a butcher, Olympe de Gouges lived a humble life. In this time period and on a butcher’s salary, Gouges’s only chance at an education was to teach herself (Frankforter 491). Using her education, Olympe de Gouges became a spokesperson for the working French woman (Frankforter 491). In the Declaration of the Rights of Woman written in the year of 1791 (De Gouges), she writes to the National Assembly and the general public, who can read. Here, Gouges challenges the ideal roles for women during this era, by asking for women to be given the same rights as men. She questions what gives men the power to make women second class citizens, inquiring if it is their talent, their sexuality, or even
Article four of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizenship states “Liberty consists in the power to do anything that does not injure other; accordingly, the exercise of the rights of each man has no limit except those that secure the enjoyment of these same rights to the other members of society. These limits can only be determined only by law”(Frank). The Declaration of the Rights of Women states “Liberty and justice consist of restoring all that belongs to others; thus, the only limits on the exercise of the natural rights of woman are perpetual male tyranny; these limits are to be reformed by the laws of nature and reason”(Gouges). Here de Gouges emphasis what I understood to be her main point, men are hindering women from practicing the rights. I believe that she’s stating that this can be solved by men understand women also have inalienable rights. In addition to the need for legislation to be passed to help women practice these rights
In an attempt to rid France of its debt, King Louis XVI tried to raise taxes. As per usual, the first and second estates didn’t want to pay and propose asking the third estate to pay instead. King Louis XVI calls for general estate which lead the third estate to form the National Assembly. Frustrated with the idea that they were being overtaxed, the french citizens were rebelling, specifically the third estate. There were a lot of revolts and killings (Frankforter 508). Eventually on August 27, 1789 the National Assembly passed the Declaration of the Right of Man (Frankforter 510). Inspired by the American Declaration of Independence, it stated that all men are free, equal in the eyes of the law, and religious toleration (Frankforter 510). Amid all this progress, women were ignored and they weren't included in any of the decisions, Olympe de Gouges obviously disagreed with this