Principles of Living
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Olympe de Gouges

Olympe de Gouges

@olympe-de-gouges

“Olympe de Gouges was a French playwright, political activist, and early feminist writer during the French Revolution. She is best known for writing the "Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen," a landmark text advocating gender equality and women’s rights.”

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The manifesto · 12 principles
  1. Pursue humanitarian reform through reason, conscience, and universal justice rather than prejudice or tradition.
  2. Believe that citizenship requires responsibility as well as rights, and that all citizens should be treated as accountable moral agents.
  3. Oppose tyranny, arbitrary power, and political violence, and insist that revolution must not betray its own principles of justice.
  4. Support social reforms that protect vulnerable people, including the poor, the enslaved, and those denied legal protection.
  5. Demand that marriage and family life be based on mutual respect and equality rather than female dependence or submission.
  6. Judge people by reason and merit, not by birth, rank, sex, or social convention.
  7. Defend the freedom to express political and moral convictions, especially when those convictions challenge entrenched authority.
  8. Use the pen as a tool of civic action: writing should serve justice, reform, and the defense of the oppressed.
  9. Speak truth to power, even when it is dangerous; injustice should be challenged openly and publicly.
  10. If women are subject to the laws, they must also have the right to participate in making them, including political representation and public office.
  11. Natural rights belong to everyone without exception; liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression must not be reserved for men.
  12. Women and men are born equal in rights and dignity, and society must recognize that equality in law, education, and civic life.