Theatre, finance and public relief
Born Marie Gouze in Montauban on 7 May 1748, de Gouges moved to Paris after marriage, motherhood and widowhood. Her antislavery play Zamore et Mirza entered the Comédie-Française's repertoire in 1785 without an immediate performance. Difficulties in staging her work encouraged her use of pamphlets and posters.
Her 1788 Letter to the People proposed voluntary contributions to relieve the fiscal crisis. Other proposals included workshops for unemployed workers and assistance for destitute women, children and older people. Following the Estates-General at Versailles in 1789, she repeatedly sought permission to establish a Journal du peuple.
Writing women into citizenship
The 1791 Declaration followed the structure of the 1789 rights declaration while explicitly including women in the nation. Article VI demanded equal participation in lawmaking and access to public employment. Articles XIII and XIV connected women's tax contributions with participation in administration and decisions on taxation.
Its claims also extended into family and property relations: Article XI addressed a mother's freedom to identify her child's father, while Article XVII protected property held by either sex. This was an appeal for legislative adoption, rather than a law that secured women's political participation.
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Revolutionary violence and prosecution
De Gouges condemned the September Massacres of 1792 and criticized Robespierre, Marat and the suppression of Girondin deputies. Her 1793 poster The Three Urns proposed that the people decide the form of government. It became central to accusations of counterrevolutionary writing.
Arrested in July, she continued to publish defences of her conduct. The Revolutionary Tribunal condemned her on 2 November 1793, and she was executed the next day. Her prosecution arose from these immediate political conflicts, rather than simply from publishing her declaration on women's rights.