Olympe de Gouges

This is a blog about Olympe de Gouges. About her life, accomplishments, and how she affected the enlightenment.

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Humanism

"humanism |ˈ(h)yo͞oməˌnizəm|nounan outlook or system of thought attaching prime importance to human rather than divine or supernatural matters. Humanist beliefs stress the potential value and goodness of human beings, emphasize common human needs, and seek solely rational ways of solving human problems."

Olympe de Gouges was a strong supporter of humanism in the way that she challenged traditional beliefs by arguing that women deserved equal rights. 

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"Male and female citizens, being equal in the eyes of the law, must be equally admitted to all honors, positions, and public employment according to their capacity and without other distinctions besides those of their virtues and talents."

Olympe de Gouges

http://www.doonething.org/heroes/pages-g/gouges-quotes.htm

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This is a picture of the execution of Olympe de Gouges. She was arrested in 1793, spent 3 months in jail and tried to defend herself the whole time without and attorney. She was finally sentenced to death on November 3, 1793 and executed publicly. Her execution was described by an anonymous parisian who said, "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."

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This is the signature of Olympe de Gouges. This is the way that she signed the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen.

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This is Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen that Olympe de Gouges wrote in 1791. It challeneges the theory of inequality between males and females.

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This is a portrait of Olympe de Gouges born on May 7, 1748 and executed on November 3, 1793 at age 45.