Dissertation Olympe de Gouges

In 1949, Simone de Beauvoir asserts in her feminist work The Second Sex that "
One is not born a woman, one becomes one." This famous phrase marks an important milestone in
the history of feminist struggles, establishing as a principle that it is education and culture that
maintain women in a state of inferiority compared to men. Two centuries
previously, one of the early feminist figures had already worked in favor of equality between
men and women: the revolutionary Olympe de Gouges, who wrote an engaged parody in 1791
from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen. It defends there in various ways the
women's rights against the oppression exerted by the patriarchal society of her time.
novelist and essayist Benoîte Groult raises the question of the relationship between the DDDFEC and
DDHEC: thus, it states, "The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Citizen was inspired by
of course from the Declaration of the Rights of Man of 1789, but it went much further.
An extraordinary modernism attitude when one thinks that two centuries later, this problem remains at the heart.
of our concerns. " This quote leads to the question of whether reading the Declaration of Rights of
Does the woman and citizen still have meaning today? It will study the reflections.
feminists of ODG differ from those of today's women. However, the problems
what ODG evokes is still relevant but it remains an emblematic and historical figure of
feminism.

1) The feminist reflections of ODG differ from those of today's women.

a) A bold speech
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Citizen is first and foremost a statement of intent.
bold in a troubled and violent sociopolitical context: that of the French Revolution.
the very structure of this text bears the mark of this transitional period that transitions from the
monarchy to republic: asserting itself as the feminine counterpart (and the ironic rewriting) of
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789 drafted by the 'representatives of the people'
French, assembled as a national assembly, the Declaration of Olympe de Gouges is nonetheless
dedicated 'To the Queen', Marie-Antoinette (who will be guillotined in 1793). If this dedication demonstrates
a concern for political concord on the part of Olympe de Gouges, it can also be explained by the fact
What does it mean to be aware of one's boldness when one demands, as a woman, the same?
rights for women as for men. It also seeks to gain the support of those who are
still the most powerful woman in France, the queen: "It only belongs to the one that chance has
raised to a prominent position, to give weight to the rise of women's rights, and to accelerate it
the successes," she writes.
b) To express oneself on behalf of all women: to create a sisterhood
Olympe de Gouges is therefore aware that as a woman, her voice is at risk of not being
understood. That is why she would like to no longer be just a singular voice but become the
voice of women. In the "Preamble" of its Declaration, it is in the name of the "mothers", of the
"girls", "sisters", "representatives of the nation", she expresses herself: she thus intends
represent all French women. Similarly, in the 'Postamble', she urges women
to recognize their rights: "O women! Women, when will you stop being blind?" She them
call to unite in order to achieve equality: "bravely oppose the force of reason to the vain
claims of superiority; gather under the banners of philosophy.
This (re)union of women that Olympe de Gouges wishes for can also be read in
the recurring use she makes of the singular 'woman' or 'the woman' in her Declaration. To this
the term 'woman', she associates it with 'citizen', a way of claiming civil equality between
women and men. Thus, Olympe de Gouges emerges as a pioneer in the defense
of women's rights, she will find in the centuries that follow continuators of her work.
She has, for her part, worked to claim a social and political status for women.

c) A Declaration for all humanity

The title "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Citizen" is misleading. Indeed, for

the essence of the provisions, Olympe de Gouges takes up the Declaration of the Rights of Man and

expands the rights stated for women. This is how, in a somewhat… macronist spirit ('I

I address everyone), many provisions are repeated word for word with the sole addition

with precision: the rights stated also concern women. Thus it is with Article 2,

which states in the Declaration of the Rights of Man: "The purpose of any political association is the

conservation of the natural and inalienable rights of man; these rights are liberty,

property, security, and resistance to oppression." This article is reproduced verbatim in the

declaration of the rights of woman, with the only mention "natural and inalienable rights of "

the woman and the man." Of the seventeen articles, the process concerns a total of eleven articles. Thus,

Essentially, the Declaration of the Rights of Woman is actually a declaration for gender.

human.

This process plays on the semantic ambiguity that the French language has with the term "man".

This last one can refer to humankind or to individuals of the male sex. Thus, the Declaration

The universal declaration of human rights, adopted in 1948, concerns all human beings and not one sex.
particular (note that Article 1 carefully states that "all human beings are born

free and equal in dignity and rights.

The approach of Olympe de Gouges, seemingly redundant, highlights the dual nature of

Legal concepts: they are both the result of observing the world and creative realities. This

be aware that the law has the dual function of regulating and shaping the fabric of social life

means of injunctions. Thus, the legal category can regulate social relations that have their

origin in nature: filiation for example; on the other hand, it creates its own reality when it

These are purely social facts: this is the case of marriage. Sometimes, the category surpasses the fact.

natural that it regulates to become itself the source: this is the case of the link of filiation in the

countries that allow same-sex couples to have children. As part of the Declaration,

the redundant approach of Olympe de Gouges, which distinguishes between women and men where the

the term 'man' could refer to humanity as a whole, highlights the injustice of

the process of excluding individuals of the sex from the legal category "man"

female.

But the issues it highlights are still relevant.

a) Gender inequalities are still present

For a long time, gender inequalities have existed, in some civilizations more so.
that of others. Often, man is more favored than woman, she has few rights and is
"submissive" to man. As we can see in old films or advertisements, the
The woman is at home, taking care of the children and preparing for the arrival of the man who works.
Just as when marrying, the woman took her husband's name and not the other way around. Nowadays,
In France, these gender inequalities still exist, although they are less prevalent.
History has made it so that women have gained more and more rights such as the right to vote in 1944 or the
marriage without a contract in 1965. They can therefore manage their own property and engage in an activity.
professional without the consent of their husband. The woman does not have the same advantages as
the man because she is, for example, poorly represented in politics in France or in positions to
Responsibilities. Inequalities continue to persist despite numerous laws passed in court.
for years. Women's rights are not a secondary issue. In its Declaration of Rights
of the woman and of the citizen, Olympe de Gouges urges Queen Marie-Antoinette to use her
position and its instruction in favor of equalizing the conditions of men and women.
She faces despotism to solemnly declare, she too under the auspices of the Being
supreme, the rights of women and of the citizen. Despite Olympe de Gouges who published, in 1791,
The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and Citizen: 'Woman is born free and remains equal'
to the man in rightsart. 1The French Revolution does not change the condition of women and does not
does not open the path to citizenship. On the contrary, in 1804, the civil code institutionalizes
the inferiority of the woman who "must obey her husband". Under the Third Republic, women
benefit from civil advancements such as access to education and World War I
demonstrate that they are essential for the proper functioning of the economy. In
1944,the ordinance of April 21of the provisional government of the French Republic installed at
Alger grants the right to vote and eligibility to women. In the second half of the 20th century,
The claims of women cover all areas of social, economic, and
politics and militating for real equality. At school, girls have better academic results.
than boys. For those who join higher education, the orientation is done rather
towards careers in the medico-social or medical field and the human sciences. Thus,
women's employment is concentrated in certain sectors of activity and certain jobs, notably
in services and care. More educated than men, women only represent
43% of managerial and higher intellectual professions in 2020. This share has
however doubled since 1980.
The activity rate of women has been steadily increasing since the mid-1970s, whereas

that of men has been fairly stable since the early 1990s: in 2020, among those aged 15-64,

68% of women and 75% of men participate in the labor market. In 2019, the wage income

the women's average remains 22% lower than that of men (28% in 2000). A little less

a third of this gap is explained by differences in working hours. Upon the arrival of children,

to reconcile private life and professional life, women are always more numerous than the

men to interrupt their activity or reduce their working hours: in 2020, those who work

are three times more likely to work part-time than men (five times more in 2008). Women

also have less access to the highest paying positions and work in companies and

less remunerative sectors. Living as a couple is the most common situation.

Nevertheless, with the increase in separations, the number of mothers at the head of a family
single-parent families increased by 24% between 2006 and 2018. Among them, one in three lives below the poverty line.

poverty. Due to shorter and less well-paid professional careers, women

retire on average one year later than men and their pensions are lower.

Finally, due to a higher life expectancy, women are the majority among those aged 65 and over.

or more, and their share increases with age. More often faced with widowhood, women live more
often alone in old age and, after 75, live more frequently in institutions and in

dependency situations.

b) a fight against racism which is a subject still present today

The play by Olympe de Gouges The Slavery of Blacks does not seem to be the
the best basis for studying one's commitment and arguments in favor of abolition of
Slavery. Olympe de Gouges presents this play from 1783 as the first she has ever written.
with the ambition of facing the stage of the Comédie française. That is three years before the publication of
book by J.P. Brissot on the same subject, five years before the creation of the Society of the Friends of the Blacks.
This form of protest theater, which will assert itself in upcoming plays and will address all the
injustices to correct in the society of his time, is mainly valued for its avant-garde spirit and its
daring. It was about this play that she was threatened with death and a lettre de cachet. The style is
borrowed from the fashion of the time: tearful and exotic, in the style of Bernardin de Saint-Pierre. The
modifications and corrections, which she multiplied until the final version of 1792,
confirms his dissatisfaction. The plea against slavery becomes muddled and gets lost with
the intervention of a natural girl searching for her father, echoing the autobiographical work
that she was writing at the same time, Memoirs of Madame de Valmont. Two other texts make it clearer
specifically accounts for Olympe de Gouges' argumentation against slavery. It is about her...
integrity, of Reflections on Black Men (1788) where she says, beginning, her emotion
of a little girl in front of the violence of racism towards a 'black woman' at the market of
Montauban, his hometown. Then, it's the last chapter of his Declaration of Rights of the
Woman and the Citizen of 1791, which is dedicated to this central concern in her thought:
the fate of slaves - eight years after The Slavery of Blacks. The abolition of slavery is, for
she, the first act of necessary liberation, which conditions the emergence of all other rights to
freedom and equality among all human beings. Including Women's Rights which, in its
thought is one of its consequences. 'Is man not his greatest masterpiece?'
The Ottoman does to many Whites what we do to Blacks: we still treat him as...
barbaric and inhumane men, and we exercise the same cruelty on men who have none
resistance than their submission." However, nowadays racism is still a very
present. Indeed, in France, associations that fight against racism show that the
inequalities still exist. Indeed, black or Arab individuals are poorer, they live
more in poor housing, have more difficulty finding work and are at greater risk
to be controlled by the police or even insulted. They live through manydiscriminationsThis
does not mean that they cannot one day become a deputy or a business leader but they
will undoubtedly face more difficulties in achieving it. White people can
to receive an insult or a remark about their skin color from another person and it is not
normal. But white people have never been victims of racist laws. They have not either
more difficulties related to their skin color in accessing housing or employment. It is
that's why we can't talk about 'anti-white racism' but rather about individual aggression if
a white person receives an insult based on their skin color.
She remains an emblematic and historical figure of feminism.
I. A call for women's rights
The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen was voted on in August 1789 by the deputies.
gathered in Constituent Assembly. Two years later, Olympe de Gouges imitates the form of
this Declaration while feminizing it: it thus proclaims in seventeen articles "the natural rights,
"inalienable and sacred rights of women" (preamble). To the "representatives of the French people," all
masculine, the author substitutes "the mothers, the daughters, the sisters, representatives of the nation."

This Declaration is an obvious pastiche of its male counterpart: the legal form is very
similar (preamble, articles, postamble), and number of syntactic and lexical constructions are
reprises almost identical.
However, the feminizations added to the original text have a critical significance:
Article VI recalls, for example, that "all citizens are equal before"
the law, which must be 'the same for all'.
The strict equality between men and women is proclaimed from the first article: 'The woman
is born free and remains equal to man in rights.
About women, Marie de Gournay was already writing in the early 17th century: 'I am contented

to equal them to men. " (Equality of men and women, 1622)

In the name of this equality, various rights, both legal and political, are thus claimed:
"liberty, property, safety, [...] resistance to oppression" (article II); freedom of opinion
and expression (articles X and XI); the right of property (article XVII).
The social sphere is also taken into account, particularly in the new 'Form of the contract
social of man and woman" proposed by Olympe de Gouges: women must be able to
thus forcing an unreliable father "to fulfill his commitments" towards a natural child.
The author does not hesitate to overturn traditional values: thus the prostitutes must be
protected "in designated neighborhoods," as they paradoxically contribute less to the
"depravity of morals" than "the women of society".
[Transition]In her Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Citizen, Olympe de Gouges
fighting indeed for women's rights. In doing so, the work also constitutes a violent
attack on male dominance.
II. A critique of injustices between the sexes
 The Declaration of Olympe de Gouges aims to fill a gap due to "ignorance, forgetfulness
or the contempt for women's rights" by men, who deliberately excluded them from life
civic by depriving them notably of the right to vote. Despite the claims of Olympe de Gouges
or from Nicolas de Condorcet (On the Admission of Women to the Right of Citizenship, 1790), we must wait
1944 for French women to obtain the right to vote. Men are severely taken by
part in the pamphlet preceding the Declaration: their "strength" and their "talents" appear
as poor excuses to oppress half of humanity. Their violence is similar
to that of Arnolphe in Molière's The School for Wives, reminding the young Agnès of her duty
of obedience before his 'almightiness'. The 'tyrannical empire' of men over women
appears as an unjust and cruel exception within the animal or plant kingdom, where
yet the sexes "cooperate with a harmonious set." However, the struggle for these rights
can only succeed if women become aware of their 'deplorable fate' and take hold of
these claims in order to emancipate themselves from male guardianship. To this end, Olympe de Gouges
don't hesitate to 'speak frankly' to Queen Marie-Antoinette, in order to convince her 'to give
from the weight to the rise of women's rights, and to accelerate their successes." This address from a woman
to another, beyond her royal status, creates a kind of sisterhood capable of transcending conventions
Social. The postamble broadens the text's destination to all women. It is a call.
directly to the awakening of feminine consciousness: "Woman, awaken!" The desire for emancipation does not
only women themselves can come, who must abolish what resembles their own
slavery towards men. Olympe de Gouges therefore seeks to fight against domination
masculine which seems unjust to him. But this struggle is ultimately put in the service of a desire
of improvement of society as a whole.

III. The ambition to improve society as a whole

In its fierce defense of equality between men and women and in its desire to
proposing a new, fairer form of 'social contract', Olympe de Gouges places herself in the
straight line of Enlightenment philosophers like Diderot, Rousseau or Montesquieu. The author
calls on the reason of its readers to enlighten them about the reality of the world and the
society. The issue of women's education emerges as a central challenge, just like the
fighting against intolerance. It is about relentlessly fighting against "the hypocrites, the prudes, the
clergy and all the infernal sequelae" to obscurantist thoughts. In On the Education of
women (1783), Pierre Choderlos de Laclos was already urging women to emancipate themselves by stepping out of
the ignorance in which they are kept by men, for "how could they
want to train women in front of whom they would be forced to blush?" The goal being to
To achieve a peaceful society, it is not a matter for women and men to wage war on each other.
eternal; on the contrary, Article III recalls that the nation consists of 'the union of the woman and of
the man." The purpose of the Declaration, beyond the emancipation from an unjust guardianship, is indeed to
find a rightful place for everyone, so that all citizens can
to constitute ourselves as a sovereign people, in accordance with a strict separation of powers.
At Olympe de Gouges, this desire for equality and freedom extends to African Blacks, treated as
slaves in the Americas. The free and honest union of man and woman, "equal in strength and
in virtue of", is also the sine qua non condition for a very fragile political harmony, in this
the bubbling period that is the French Revolution. In this work, Olympe de Gouges does not fight
so not only for women's rights: she also calls on them to free themselves from fate in
to which they are maintained, in order to arrive at a fairer new society, inspired by the
philosophy of the Enlightenment.

In conclusion, the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Citizen by Olympe de Gouges is
important today, as it is considered one of the first feminist documents in history. It has
was written at a time when women were excluded from public life and civil rights. The Declaration
Olympe de Gouges was written in the context of the French Revolution, where men were fighting
for their rights, but women were largely excluded from the movement. By asking for equality of
Sex and the emancipation of women, Olympe de Gouges laid the foundations of a feminist movement that
continues even today. Furthermore, this Declaration has inspired other important documents, such as the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted by the United Nations in 1948. It also
influenced other movements fighting against discrimination, particularly the movement for rights
civic rights in the United States and the movement for sexual minority rights. Finally, the Declaration of
Gouges is important because it reminds us that gender equality is a fundamental right.
which must be defended and protected at all times. Even though significant progress has been made in
gender equality has been a matter since the drafting of this text, there is still much to be done to
to achieve true equality between men and women. This Declaration, nowadays has to
because it is a text that calls for a change in mindsets, starting in 1791. The reading of this legal text
long concealed (it did not achieve success upon its publication), with the hindsight we have today,
permet de faire le point sur ce qui a changé et ce qui doit encore évoluer. La personne d’Olympe de
Gouges and her fight for equality are as interesting as her writings. What her reading brings,
It is a question: where do we stand on equality between women and men, 230 years later?
late? Thus, nowadays, other authors question the inequalities that prevail among the
individuals such as Victoire Tuaillon with Les Couilles sur la Table.