Freiheit, Gleichheit, Gerechtigkeit – Antikolonialismus und Frauenrechte bei Olympe de Gouges

This article offers an insight into life and work of the French author and politician Olympe de Gouges as well as an analysis of her positions on the French Revolution and on other contemporary issues such as anti-colonialism, class differences and women’s rights. The article argues that the author used literature as a space to develop a political stance that, due to the legal situation, she could not carry out professionally. In her play “L’Esclavage des Noirs, ou l’Heureux naufrage” (1792) and in the essay “Réflexions sur les hommes nègres” (1788), de Gouges openly criticizes the brutality of white plantation owners, invokes the equality of all people, and condemns human trafficking. In “La Nécessité du Divorce” (1790), the author demands the right to divorce, a fair division of property, protection of one’s own property also for women, and a financially secure future for the children born out of wedlock. In her famous “Déclaration des Droits de la Femme et de la Citoyenne” (1791), the author called for truly universal suffrage, as well as for the right to liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression.