I’m in Paris now, have been for three days. I’ve been doing a lot of walking, looking at a lot of famous buildings and churches, for example Notre Dame. Today I stood at the point where the Bastille used to stand before the revolution started and it was all thorn down. It made me think of all the brave people, both men and women, who participated in that historic battle for freedom. But it also made me think of how much we forget about the women who did there share. For Instance Olympe De Gouges. She was one of the first women who wrote political writings for women’s rights and for the aboloshing slavery. She wanted worked along side the revolution until she saw that the revolutinaries worked mostly for men’s rights and ignored women’s, so she started attacking them by writing “The decolaration of women’s rights and the female citizen”. She was later imprisoned and sent to the guillotine by the Jacobins. She was executed for “Opposing the death penalty”. I found it interesting how much is talked about how the Jacobins executed Marie Antoinette, but compared to that how little is talked about Olympe de Gouges execution. Almost everybody knows the faith of the queen, but not the faith of the feminist. I find this strange and sad. Because to be honest, who has had truly more impact on the struggle for women: Marie Antoinette or Olype de Gouges? Naturally De Gouges is also important for men to; she did a lot for humans rights in general. Yet almost nobody remembers her.

Well, I guess there’s nothing more but for everyone to start educating themselves! Visit this wikipedia page to lerarn more about the great Olympe De Gouges: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympe_de_Gouges#Writings

Happy reading!