Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen

A pamphlet published in Paris in September 1791 by a playwright and political writer, answering the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, which it rewrites article by article. It opens with a dedication to Queen Marie-Antoinette and a challenge asking man whether he is capable of being just. The declaration itself has a preamble and seventeen articles. The first states that woman is born free and remains equal to man in rights. Others claim equal admission to public honours and employment, equal liability to taxation with a matching share of posts and offices, and property rights for both sexes. Article 10 makes the best-known point: if woman has the right to mount the scaffold, she must also have the right to mount the rostrum. A postscript calls on women to wake up to their rights, and the text ends with a model social contract between man and woman, proposing shared property and equal inheritance for all children.

It is a short, direct demonstration that declarations of universal rights can quietly exclude half of humanity, and it remains a reference point in debates about who counts as a citizen.