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Did you know that Olympe de Gouges, a woman way ahead of her time, was guillotined for progressive ideologies?
Olympe de Gouges, born in 1748, was a French playwright and political activist who ardently fought for women's rights. While France was in the throes of the revolution in 1791, she wrote the "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen". This audacious act of feminism made her eligible for enemies in the new French republic. In 1793, she challenged the idea of the revolutionary government which only allowed male citizens to arm themselves by penning a controversial play, 'The Three Urns', advocating for a plebiscite for a government style. This defiant act made her slandered as outrageous and ultimately, she was arrested, tried and guillotined in November of the same year for promoting "royalist conspiracy". Her fearless fight against the gendered double standards of revolutionary ideals tells a bittersweet tale of courage and resistance.

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