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¶ … Declaration of the Rights of Man, written by Lafayette during the reign of Louis XVI, is quite different to that of the Declaration of the Rights of Woman created by De Gourges during the rule of the revolutionary French government.
The Declaration of the Rights of Man consists of 17 short and succinct points. As we see it has been approved by the National Assembly of France on August 26, 1789. Its passage seems to have been smooth. That of the Rights of Woman, however, was formed and accepted by oen group -- a partisan group of women -- and even they did not reflect the general population of females who, as de Gourges remarks, are against the status quo being changed and would need males to campaign for any effective social change in their condition to be accomplished. De Gourges was correct. The first pamphlet, the Declaration of Man, won Lafayette fame and acclaim. The second one, the Declaration of Women, led to the death of De Gouges, its author.
Lafayette precedes by noting that "the ignorance, neglect, or contempt of the rights of man are the sole cause of public calamities and of the corruption of governments" he, therefore, calls upon the French government to base their system upon "simple and incontestable principles [that] shall tend to the maintenance of the constitution and redound tot the happiness of all."
His principles include the following: Men are born free and, therefore, equally share the natural rights of man, which are "liberty, property, security, and resistance to oppression." Liberty consists of being protected from injury by another. The State should protect this right. Operation of Law and equal access to a just Law is the right of all. All citizens should be equal in the eyes of the law and equal to all available positions. Citizens should only be arrested and accused when they have perpetrated an offense against the law. If proved so, citizens should submit without excuse. Punishments...
Tolerance should be expended to religion unless when it is disturbing to public rights. There should be free communication of ideas; equal taxation; military forces that work for the good of all; and individuals should not be deprived of their property unless legally demanded or publicly required.
These principles were, more or less, in accordance with the alleged aims of the French government. True, they violated many of them in practical terms. As note -- it is paradoxical that the author of this Rights of Women -- a pamphlet echoing many of these sentiments -- but for females - was herself impetuously sentenced to death without objective attorney and that she resisted her death, thus violating two of these prescriptions. On the other hand, this was a Declaration for Man, not for Woman. The French government was in accordance with most of Lafayette's statements and therefore did not perceive it as threatening the status quo or being revolutionary. It was, accordingly, passed through with little fuss. Louis XVI signed it, although he never intended to support it. It own public acceptance and support since it represented the public's desire.
The Declaration of the Rights of Women was however quite a different story and revolutionary in all aspects of the matter.
Its tone, first of all, is different. The tone was deliberately fashioned after, but, in contradistinction to the Declaration of Rights of Man, it is written in a rhetorical style appealing to man for equal acceptance of women who are similar to them in all biological ways and accusing them of forgetting this fact and of treating women unjustly. De Gouges calls males despotic and arrogant as well as irrational in their treatment of the sexes. Even animals have m ore respect for the female gender than they.
Some of the principles are the same: De Gouges says that women are born as equally free…
Wherever woman's rights are lacking, such as by property and tax, De Gourges focuses on this omission so that her rhetoric exceeds the called-for principle.
The whole, in content, vaguely resembles that of the Declaration of the Rights of Man but differs so diametrically in spirit, that it turns out to have little resemblance. The first is direct and to the point, taking up more or less a page. The second absorbs nine pages, preceding and concluding with diatribe against man and pads its principles with the same. The first is a calm and direct document. The second is an angry, philandering one calling upon women to wake up to their injustice and to battle for their rights. De Gourges recognizes, however, that women, intimidated so long by men and content with their inferiority will less likely do so. It will need men to do so for them. She describes marriage as an entombment of trust and love and seems to state that the state of the unmarried woman, thoguh not perfect, is preferable to that of the married one, She also includes an appendix that promotes a 'social contract between Man and Woman regarding how to put her principles into effect.' Lafayette had no such social contract between Man and the French Government. De gouges' document was a memorandum for men's treatment of women. Lafayette's was of that between the French government and its citizens. Since the citizens who Lafayette had in mind were men and since they unilaterally wanted these changes, there was no, or little problem. De Gouges however called for significant changes in the status quo and she seemed to criticize the preset French Revolutionary government, and therefore the Reign of Terror executed her.
De Gourges, too, was atypical in her time. She refused to call herself 'widow' or accept her position as widowed mother as was conventional then. She publicized her illegitimate (or alleged illegitimate) roots, and created for herself the public life of an active woman on a par to that of men. She also left her son in order to do so. All of these acts, and others, were unconventional revolutionary acts, which were perceived as subversive and seditious. Executed in Paris on November 3, 1973, De Gouges appealed to others to continue her crusade.
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