Olympde de Gouges was born in 1748 in southwest France. Her birth name was Marie Gouz. As a young child, she thought that she was actually the daughter of Jean-Jacques Lefranc, marquis de Pomignan, though the man rejected her claims throughout her youth. As a child of the Enlightenment, she grew with the idea that people were created more equally than they were being treated, and this came out in the plays and essays that she wrote throughout her life. Her work in giving rights to illegitimate children was fueled by her idea that she was one of them. Her feminist thinking was fueled by her unhappy marriage to Louis Aubry when she was only 17. When he died in 1770, she moved to Paris and took up the name of Olympe. This is when her best writing began to form as she surrounded herself with other prominent writers of the Enlightenment. She wrote plays that expressed her feminist ideals and also wrote controversial works against slavery. She was beheaded in 1793 after attacking the government in her writings.
All of the work that was produced by Olympe de Gouges was based on the thinking during the Enlightenment. It called for the use of strict scientific reasoning in looking at human rights and other topics. Her works focused on making women equals to men and also on giving rights to slaves, children and others who were treated unfairly in her eyes.
Olympe de Gouges was a renaissance woman with strong ideas and the will to make them heard. This was not easy to do at a time when men controlled the government and held the most powerful social roles. Her work as an advocate sparked change because of her unique voice and the strength behind her convictions. She did much for women simply by raising her voice and showing that even a woman can approach topics such as human rights with a level head.
From 1765 to 1770, Olympe was married to Louis Aubry, but not out of love. He was not a rich man and held no important status, so she felt that the marriage was a waste. This was important to her later view on women and equal marriage rights. This topic in particular was touched on in her 1791 work, "Declaration on the Rights of Women." After her husband died, she lived in Paris the rest of her life, living with other men who could support her financially. It wasn't until the end of the Enlightenment, though, that she really began to lash out with her work. This was in the mid to late 1780s. She died in the early 1790s.
Even long after her death, the ideas of Olympe de Gouges still ring strong with many activists and feminists. "Declaration of the Rights of Women" is an important text in that regard. Recently, a square in France was named after her, and in 2007 her remains were requested for burial in the Pantheon. They were not able to be recovered because of the way she died, though in the years to come a ceremonial burial for her will probably occur.