Olympe de Gouges was critical of the French Revolution because it did not provide for equal rights for women. She demanded that women be "constituted as a national assembly" in the same way that male revolutionary leaders had been. Further, she argued that the basic rights afforded to men by the Revolution had to be extended to women as well. These included the right to free speech, participate in the drafting of a constitution, vote, and serve in government. A privately-educated woman herself, she demanded a national education system that provided education to women. She called for a "Social Contract between Man and Woman" that would serve as the foundation for a truly equitable society that treated all of its citizens equally. In short, she demanded that the revolutionary leaders treat women as civil, political, legal, and social equals. This stance led to her death on the guillotine during the Terror of 1793-94.
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