The French RevolutionEssay Preview: The French RevolutionReport this essayThe French Revolution (1789-1791) was a period where fundamental changes within all aspects of society and the government flourished. It became the essence from which equality and liberty for the citizens of France was demanded and further established. In 1789 the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen denied the primacy of authority above society by outlining the constitutional rights of all French men. The document was a testimony to the issues of gender in late eighteenth-century France as it was limited to males and failed to address women suffrage, despite womans active participation in revolutionary festivities. In response to this, Olympe de Gouges, a playwright and political activist of the time, published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman in 1791. It was a re-written document of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen from a womens perspective that highlighted how women had been excluded from its promises of universal freedom and equality.
Throughout her work in the Declaration of the Rights of Woman, de Gouges emphasised the importance of womens rights, which have been both forgotten and ignored in the corrupt governments. She does this by attaching a personal letter to Queen Marie Antoinette where she asserts her true duty in hastening a revolution that will challenge the ideal representation of the domestic and depoliticized woman. The image of a gentle woman, dedicated only to her family, was to be made a reality during the revolutionary period. In her postscript, de Gouges further confronts this issue by proposing that women obliterate the misguided perception of their gender that confines them to the private sphere of home and prevents them from taking active positions in public and political life.
The Declaration of the Rights of Women (DTR) stands for the right of women to participate in democratic political activities on a legal and economic or social level. This legal and economic role is held by women in a democratic state through the use of private property; by women, it allows women to run public or political offices in a society where the government is more powerful. To protect women from the corrupt practices from which they were born, de Gouges wrote in her letter, “No woman shall, despite her past achievements, turn her back into an object of ridicule or exploitation…[even] if she wishes to. The most important thing is for women to have the freedom to participate in political and social life without fear of being ostracized and disrespected.”
According to de Gouges’ letter, “[T]he most important thing is a woman’s sense that she is one woman. And what that is, in her mind, is something beyond a mere state function. The most beautiful thing, from the point of view of her mother, is a woman who has no place in state institutions.”
This makes the Declaration of the Rights of Women, especially her new policy of the International Women’s Forum (WFA) in 2015, arguably one of the country’s most influential and influential in terms of its advocacy in women’s issues. The WFA is, and must remain, a strong forum for bringing about more women and women’s rights organizations worldwide.
Women’s Suffrage: the Radical Moment
The Declaration of the Rights of Women, on its own, appears to be part of the ongoing struggle to end the institutionalization of women by the United Nations Human Rights Council. The UN had stated in 2014 that its purpose of protecting women is “to foster an environment where women are included, free of discrimination, violence, prejudice and exploitation against women and children.”
But the UN Human Rights Council, of which France is a member, also failed in its stated obligation to hold, “any group opposing the implementation of a fundamental human rights agenda for women.”
The Declaration of the Rights of Women asserts that “It is the duty of the United Nations to ensure that no other group in its community has a monopoly on the exercise of its rights, which have been completely lost over the past twenty-five years.”
It furthermore states that if any group “ever attempts to impose on other groups or to affect them through discrimination, it will in turn infringe the fundamental rights of women, under the Charter and international law, until it is eliminated or eradicated from existence, and women’s participation in democratic political activity shall be recognised as not only an essential right provided for by the Charter, but also legally necessary.” There is one area where the document’s inclusion is problematic, namely as it ignores or disregards the fact that the global feminist movement of the early 1990’s saw the Declaration of the Rights of Woman as an attempt to undermine the existing gender wage gap. In this area, the UN has repeatedly emphasized its commitment to promoting “the right of women in their everyday lives