Olympe de Gouges was arguably the most important woman of the French Revolution. Although not as well known as others, particularly in English speaking circles, de Gouges produced a body of written work that expressed important ideals on human rights that were quite radical during that time, but are taken for granted in most democratic countries today. Her clarity of recognizing injustice was unparalleled in late 18th century France. She acted with a fearless moral compass on behalf of oppressed persons without distinction of class, race or gender, whether they were colonized slaves or the king of France. Armed with a quill pen as her only weapon, de Gouges headed into the bloody Reign of Terror and nothing short of the guillotine would deter her bravery in fighting for human rights. The outbreak of Revolution was a source of great optimism for the women of Paris in hopes that the changes to be gained would be to the benefit of all persons, including themselves. Olympe De Gouges hopes for the Revolution differed from those of the women who marched on Versailles in that their demands were aimed at immediate needs like the securing of bread and wheat, while de Gouges had loftier sights such as gaining long-term political equality for women. This gained her a reputation as one of the most notable and earliest feminists of France. One of the most pivotal events in the French Revolution was indeed the Women’s March on Versailles on October 5th and 6th of 1789, which pressured King Louis XVI into finally signing the Declaration of Rights and in bringing him and the royal family to the Tuileries Palace in Paris where they would be at the mercy of the Revolutionaries. However, the rights that those women had marched and fought for would not be their own. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen) did not include women, nor even consider their needs. Women were categorized as passive citizens, meaning that they were unable to vote and excluded from the rights laid out in the Declaration. Likewise, men who were servants also considered passive citizens. Only land-owning men were afforded the rights of “universal” suffrage. Ironically, this monumental document was inspired by and Jean Jacques Rousseau and cited his Enlightenment principle that “all men are born and remain free and equal in rights”. Article VI of the Declaration states that “The law is the expression of the general will” and yet excludes over half of the general population. In fact, the estimated population of France at that time was approximately 29 million people, but only 4.3 million Frenchmen were extended the rights of active citizens. This document, rife with contradictions, was written by bourgeoisie men for bourgeoisie men. Laughably, Article XII states “The guarantee of the rights of man and of the citizen necessitates a public force: this force is thus instituted for the advantage of all and not for the particular utility of those in whom it is trusted.” And so, with her sharp intellect, Olympe de Gouges attacked the Declaration using the wit and language of an Enlightenment philosopher, releasing it’s antithesis in 1791, the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen (Déclaration des Droits de la Femme et de la Citoyenne). As the National Assembly worked to establish new laws to replace those of the old regime (l’Ancien Regime), Olympe de Gouges fought to address them with demands, which might extend natural law to all French people, including women. In the name of liberty and equality she wrote 40 plays, two novels and over 90 political pamphlets. Her recommendations, contained within these writings, included:
From her biography it can be deduced that Olympe de Gouges unwavering commitment to combat for those who were oppressed was influenced by her own life as a marginalized individual. Born in 1748 as Marie Gouze to a petite bourgeoisie family in Montauban of South Western France, she was the illegitimate child of a man of power and wealth, Jean-Jacques Lefranc, Marquis de Pompignan. Her biological father, however, refused to publically acknowledge her as his daughter. The ill treatment of both herself and her mother compelled Marie to later plead for rights such as child-support on behalf of illegitimate children and their widowed mothers. Married off at the age of 16 to a local innkeeper of Montauban, it was a most unhappy marriage for Marie, no doubt, inspiring her to later fight for women’s right to divorce. The parallels are endless. Olympe de Gouges relentless pursuit of equality being significantly based on personal experience foretells the second wave feminism of the 1970’s whose rallying cry was “The personal is political”. “The movement encouraged women to understand aspects of their personal lives as deeply politicized and reflective of a sexist power structure.”[1] Widowed by age 18, in 1770, she and her son Pierre moved to Paris where she reinvented herself as Olympe de Gouges, an amalgamation of her mother’s and father’s names. Although she had long-term partners in Paris, de Gouges refused to re-marry as doing so would limit her political freedom and allow a husband ownership over her intellectual property. Inspired by her biological father who was regarded also as a man of letters, de Gouges followed in his footsteps, leading her to the salons of Paris and literary circles. As a young women of the French provinces, de Gouges had received only a nominal education by local nuns. The French dialect of Montauban was also very different from that of Parisians, and so her grasp of the language, both spoken and written, was indeed a challenge. Likely it was this challenge that inspired de Gouges to fight for the equal education of girls. Furthermore, it was argued that women could not be allowed to vote because they weren’t educated and therefore could not make educated decisions. So by keeping girls from being educated, they were also thereby kept from voting, a practice that is still prolific in some parts of the world today. De Gouges fight for women to hold political equality foretold the fight for suffrage in the 19th century, which heralded the first wave of feminism. However, it would not be until 1944 that women in France gained the right to vote. "Women have the right to mount the scaffold, they must also have the right to mount the speaker's rostrum." Olympe de Gouges Acknowledged mostly as a feminist, Olympe de Gouges was, above all, a humanist. In 1784 she wrote the play Zamore and Mirza or The Enslavement of the Blacks (Zamore et Mirza ou l’Eclavage des Noirs). Sadly, the play was shut down after only three performances due to the brawls that ensued between abolitionists and businessmen who had an interest in the slave trade. Ten years later, de Gouges fight was reconciled when slavery in the French colonies was abolished in 1794. Unfortunately though, in 1804 Napoleon reinstated slavery in the sugarcane growing colonies under regulation of the Napoleonic Code. But by the 1850’s France, Britain the United States had abolished and criminalized slavery. However, the slave trade is still alive today as seen in CNN’s 2017 exposé of Libya, proving that this dark stain on humanity is one not easily eliminated. Extending her ideology of the right to a fair trial to be extended to all persons, was to be her downfall. Stripped of his title as king, Louis XVI had become simply Louis Capet, and was facing trial for treason against France. De Gouges, who was also against capital punishment, offered to act as his legal counsel. She stated that “As king, I believe Louis to be in the wrong, but take away this proscribed title and he ceases to be guilty, in the eyes of the republic”.[2] Her alignment with the moderate Girondins was barely tolerable, but what was perceived as her support for the monarchists, had crossed the line tantamount to being an “enemy of the Revolution”. In one of her most memorable statements, Olympe de Gouges declared “women have the right to mount the scaffold, they must also have the right to mount the speaker's rostrum". Sadly, while she would never be permitted to enjoy the latter, her prolific career as a playwright and human rights activist would come to an end at the drop of the blade on November 3, 1793. - Holly Marie Armishaw (2017) [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_feminism [2] http://www.olympedegouges.eu/defenseur_officieux.php Bibliography:
Blanc, Olivier. Olympe de Gouges – Des Droits de la Femme à la Guillotine. Éditions Tallandier, 2014. Poirson, Martial. Amazones de la Revolution (Des Femmes dans la tourmente de 1789). Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2016. Moore, Lucy. Liberty – The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France. Harper Collins Publishers, 2006. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaration_of_the_Rights_of_Man_and_of_the_Citizen https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges https://www.loc.gov/law/help/inheritance-laws/france.php https://bonjourparis.com/history/olympe-de-gouges/ http://olympedegougesinfo.weebly.com/background.html http://chnm.gmu.edu/revolution/d/293/ http://www.iep.utm.edu/gouges/
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February 21st, 2017 marked one of the largest protests in world history. The Women’s March on Washington drew an estimated 500,000 people to the flagship march in Washington, with officials reporting that marches took place on all seven continents, in 673 places worldwide totalling an estimated 5 million participants worldwide! Word had spread like wildfire through social media as marches were organized in over 80 countries. The main impetus for such an event was the inauguration of the Trump administration into the U.S. White House, one of the most powerful positions of authority in the world, following a corrupt presidential campaign fueled with misogyny. While the main message of the march was that Women’s Rights are Human Rights, the agenda included Ending Violence, Reproductive Rights, LGBTQIA Rights, Workers Rights, Civil Rights (Black Lives Matter), Disability Rights, Immigrant Rights, and Environmental Justice. The unification of women seeking to dismantle system of oppression is not a new concept. In fact, as a Francophile and independent scholar of the French Revolution, the Women’s March on Washington was an immediate reminder to me of the Women’s on Versailles. In Paris on the morning of October 5, 1789, a young girl beat upon a drum summoning a call to action. A crowd grew up to 10,000 people, consisting mainly of working-class women from the faubourgs of Paris who assembled at the Hôtel de Ville (city hall) commencing the historical event now known as the Women’s March on Versailles. Hailstorms and poor harvests had caused a grain shortage and subsequently, the price of bread to rise. A lavish banquet had been held on October 1st to welcome the Royal Guards, who were also seen as an affront to the peoples own National Guard, as meanwhile peasants died of starvation. This mockery of the peasant's suffering enraged the women of Paris who could not feed their own families. After pillaging the Hôtel de Ville looking for bread and weapons, they set out on the 20 km march to Chateau Versailles knowing that the King, his family and the royal court, were never without bread. As they marched, their numbers grew, joined by women and men alike. While the Women’s March on Washington of 2017 was noted as being a peaceful protest, the same cannot be said for the Women’s March on Versailles of 1789. Peaceful negotiations by the men who spoke in the Estates General had been proving ineffective, inspiring the women to take matters into their own hands through any means necessary. Often referred to as a mob or horde, these were peasant women who did not have the privilege of an education. Their core group who led the March on Versailles were the tough, burly women known as poissards who worked in the fish markets of Faubourg St. Antoine and Les Halles. They armed themselves with pikes, pitchforks and large knives. Protestors were urged to take any weapons that they could lay their hands upon, including muskets and a cannon recently gained during the Storming of the Bastille that summer. When the marchers arrived at Chateau Versailles they found the gates, which were usually open, closed and guarded. Word had reached the palace before their arrival. They demanded to speak to the King who agreed to hear their grievances and the guard allowed a handful of women to enter. Following a long evening of negotiations, King Louis XVI and his family slept under close guard. As dawn broke, the women breached their way through a side entrance of the palace gates and led the angry mob into the palace in search of the Queen, whom they intended to slaughter. Violence broke out as the Royal Guard attempted to defend their charges. Two unfortunate guards were beheaded and their heads were proudly paraded on pikes. The angry mob arrived in the Queen’s bedchambers just after she had escaped through a hidden doorway, while history alleges that they stabbed away at her bed perhaps hoping she was still in it. The royal family hunkered in fear for their lives in the King’s chambers at the mercy of their subjects. General Lafayette mediated negotiations, which would spare their lives for the time being if certain demands were met. The actions of the Women’s March on Versailles reaped three great rewards. Firstly, they received a signed order by the King for any delayed wheat shipments to be dispatched to Paris immediately. Secondly, the King finally agreed to sign the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, which he had until then delayed doing. This was a momentous occasion – not unlike the signing of the Canadian Bill of Rights or the American Constitution. Lastly, the King and his family, under extreme duress, reluctantly agreed to move to Paris immediately where they would be at the mercy and of the people. They established themselves in the vacant Tuileries Palace and were essentially under house arrest. The National Assembly also moved from Versailles and was established nearby so that progress could occur more effectively. Unfortunately, the rights that the women who had marched 20 km in the rain and spent the night on the cold, damp street, fighting to bring the King to accountability, were rights that would not be their own. The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen did not include any rights for women, who were merely “passive citizens” unable to vote and discouraged from political involvement in favour of tending to their “natural” place at home raising their families of a new generation of Republicans. The day after the Women’s March on Washington, the newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted “Watched protests yesterday but was under the impression that we just had an election! Why didn't these people vote?”. Could it be that unlike European women who had faced famine, war and unimaginable oppression, we are just a little too comfortable in our North American existence, taking luxuries like social welfare, the right to vote, and the right to education for granted? Unlike the French women of 1789, the American women of 2017 hold the right to vote. They also have the right to education, unlike their French predecessors. Education has long been a criteria point in the decision on whether or not to grant voting rights to certain groups of people as it is often argued that those who are not educated are not well-informed enough to vote. And so, while the historical impact of the 10,000 people who marched to Versailles held a lasting and active effect on French history, it is not yet clear what, if any effect the marching of 5,000,000 people who participated in the Women’s March of 2017, will have on 21st century North American history. - Holly Marie Armishaw (November 2017) Bibliography: Moore, Lucy. Liberty – The Lives and Times of Six Women in Revolutionary France. Harper Collins Publishers, 2006. Poirson, Martial. Amazones de la Revolution (Des Femmes dans la tourmente de 1789). Gourcuff Gradenigo, 2016. Nagel, Susan. Marie-Thérèse: The Fate of Marie Antoinette’s Daughter. Bloomsbury, 2008. https://www.womensmarch.com/mission https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Women%27s_March https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/us/womens-march.html https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/01/22/trump-takes-to-twitter-to-weigh-in-on-womens-march-tv-ratings-for-inauguration/?utm_term=.a05cf6953530 https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/live/2017/jan/21/womens-march-on-washington-and-other-anti-trump-protests-around-the-world-live-coverage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women%27s_March_on_Versailles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ISPVu-U2Jw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZeIphm818I&t=732s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bTQv9ESk2c&t=688s |
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