In
France ………….
During the French revolution, French citizenship was defined by the document called the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen. [7] Until 1944, this document was limited to males even though women had a very active role during the Revolution. Many women believed that since they had the job of raising future citizens, they themselves should also have status as a French citizen.[8]
Olympe de Gouge
Olympe de Gouge spoke out and fought for this citizenship. She wrote and
published a document that she called the Déclaration des Droits de la Femme et
de la Citoyenne (The Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Citizen).
In this document, Gouge both asserted that a woman was able to reason and to make moral decisions. She argued that woman was not simply the same as man, but she was his equal partner.[8]
“Woman is born free and her rights are the same as those of man….if women have to right to go to the scaffold, they must also have the right to go to Parliament” [7]
Among the challenges in Gouge's Declaration was the assertion that women, as
citizens, had the right to free speech, and therefore had the right to reveal
the identity of the fathers of their children. [8]
She assumed that a child who was
born out of wedlock had the same rights as a legitimate child. This brought
attention to the fact that men could be unfaithful and women could not.
For asserting this equality, and repeating it publicly Olympe de Gouge was arrested in July 1793, four years after the Revolution. She was sent to the guillotine in November of that year. [5,8]