2025/10/31 by Nicastro, Alessia
paper · doi:10.17636/101113083
This article explores Olympe de Gouges’ pivotal contribution in redefining women’s subjectivity during the French Revolution. Born Marie Gouze in 1748, de Gouges is renowned for her fight against women’s subordination and slavery. Her seminal text, Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (1791), long neglected in international legal scholarship, serves as the focal point of this analysis. The article analyses how she redefined the concepts of equality and citizenship by excplictly including women as political and legal subjects. It argues that her Déclaration fundamentally challenged the dichotomy between the private and public spheres that excluded women from political life. Finally, it considers the enduring relevance of her Déclaration, proposing that her redefinition of citizenship and equality articulated a transformative vision of women’s subjectivity. Through her visionary ideas, de Gouges expanded the possibilities for women's roles in society, tracing a new path for their recognition as equal subjects of law.