Synopsis
A revolutionary manifesto rewriting the Rights of Man to insist that women share equal natural and civic rights with men.
Core passage idea
Paraphrase · Public domainWoman is born free and remains equal to man in rights, so if she may mount the scaffold she must equally be allowed to mount the rostrum.
It exposes the French Revolution's exclusion of women and demands the universal rights it proclaimed actually be universal.
To avoid a bubble
Pair with Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
Reading note
Read it against the original Declaration of the Rights of Man, noting each pointed revision de Gouges makes.
Best paired with
Mary Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman