Gouges, Olympe de

(1755-1793)

   writer, feminist

   Born Marie Gouze in Montauban, olympe de Gouges as she is known, was the daughter of a washerwoman and a butcher. Arriving in Paris some time before the revolution of 1789, she married a wealthy older man, became a widow, then supported herself by writing. She soon became a playwright of some note. Although a moderate politically (she defended the king), de Gouges wrote many profoundly revolutionary and feminist pamphlets but also denounced the terror. In her now famous Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1792), she was an ardent advocate for women's emancipation, stating that women should be full citizens with full political and personal rights.

   Her writings in favor of louis XVI, however, as well as some of her feminist ideas, caused her to be arrested and guillotined.