1793 in literature

Last Updated on April 25,

Despite holding a significant place in the annals of French revolutionary history, Olympe de Gouges is hardly a household name. Many will easily recognize figures such as Lafayette, the Marquis de Condorcet, and the redoubtable Robespierre&#; names that appear over and over in popular accounts of the Revolution of and its aftermath.

What they often don&#;t know is that one brave, provocative woman responded to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen with a proto-feminist manifesto&#; one that castigated the Revolution&#;s glaring omission of women from its proposed expansion of human rights.

Keep reading to learn who de Gouges was, how she contributed to the advancement of human (and women&#;s) rights in France and worldwide&#; and how her life came to a brutal and needless end at the hands of Robespierre&#;s Reign of Terror.

From Playwright & Abolitionist to Revolutionary Pamphleteer

Born Marie Gouze in the southern French t