Marie Gouze was born in 1748 as a daughter to a butcher and a washerwoman in the south of France. Although she was naturally intelligent, women receiving education in that day was unheard of. She was given the passion to write, but her reading and writing skills were poor, as well as her ability to speak French. However, despite Marie Gouze's upbringing and natural role in life, she forbade her sex to decide her lifestyle and fate.
When she came of age, she moved to Paris with a rich transport company owner, where she called herself "Olympe de Gouges". To her, this name sounded more aristocratic and desirable. She was able to live by the support of her lover, and tolerated the names that were often thrown at her. As long as she could be a writer, her reputation hardly mattered.
Olympe soon gained her living from the theater. However, Olympe's straight-forward and outspoken subject matters resulted in her piece being taken off the stage. By the time the Revolution occurred, she was deeply angered by the treatment she received, and boldly spoke out against the unequal treatment of women. By 1789, she began a solo campaign by putting up posters and handing out pamphlets.
In 1791, Olympe published her most famous document: the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Citizen. This led to a frenzy all over the state of Paris. It was The Three Urns or the Welfare of the Fatherland that led to her arrest. She was seen as a counter-revolutionist, and was beheaded on the 3rd of November, 1793.
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