Olympe de Gouges was born to working class parents, but took her place amidst the French intellectuals who advocated the French Revolution. She was a popular playwright, and she strongly advocated the rights of French women. She spoke for not only herself, but many of the women of France, when in 1791 she wrote and published the ‘Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Citizen’. Olympe asserted that woman was not simply the same as man, but that she was his equal partner, and so, she should enjoy the same rights as man. Unfortunately, Olympe was too far ahead of her times. For asserting this equality, and repeating the assertion publicly, Olympe de Gouges was arrested in July 1793, four years after the Revolution. She was sent to the guillotine in November of that year.
