PIONERES DELS DRETS DE LA DONA: MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT I OLYMPE DE GOUGES

Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) fou una activista, filòsofa i escriptora de novel·les, assaigs i literatura infantil. És considerada una de les precursores de la literatura i filosofia feminista amb la seua obra  Vindicació dels drets de la dona (1792), on argumenta que les dones son éssers humans que mereixen els mateixos drets fonamentals que els homes, i en particular reclama el seu accés a l'educació.

Wollstonecraft va viure una vida breu, tumultuosa, poc convencional. A més a més, va ser la mare de Mary Shelley; futura autora de la novel·la Frankenstein o el Prometeu modern i pionera del gènere literari de la ciència-ficció.

Mary Wollstonecraft: la educación de las mujeres como principio básico de igualdad e independencia, artículo de Fernanda Balangero Musso   

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (en castellano e inglés) 

 

Olympe de Gouges, la feminista guillotinada por los revolucionarios franceses que no reconocieron sus derechos (artículo de Fernanda Jara)

 

BIOGRAPHIES IN ENGLISH

Mary Wollstonecraft, married name Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, (born April 27, 1759, London, England—died September 10, 1797, London), was an English writer and passionate advocate of educational and social equality for women. She outlined her beliefs in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), considered a classic of feminism.

A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is one of the pioneering works of feminism. Published in 1792, Wollstonecraft’s work argued that the educational system of her time deliberately trained women to be frivolous and incapable. She posited that an educational system that allowed girls the same advantages as boys would result in women who would be not only exceptional wives and mothers but also capable workers in many professions. Other early feminists had made similar pleas for improved education for women, but Wollstonecraft’s work was unique in suggesting that the betterment of women’s status be effected through such political change as the radical reform of national educational systems. Such change, she concluded, would benefit all society.

The publication of Vindication caused considerable controversy but failed to bring about any immediate reforms. From the 1840s, however, members of the incipient American and European women’s movements resurrected some of the book’s principles. 

Adapted from 

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft: una reivindicación de los derechos de la mujer (in English)

 

Olympe de Gouges, also called Marie-Olympe de Gouges, original name Marie Gouze, married name Marie Aubry, (born May 7, 1748, Montauban, France—died November 3, 1793, Paris), was a French social reformer and writer who challenged conventional views on a number of matters, especially the role of women as citizens. Many consider her among the world’s first feminists.

She became active in political causes and took up social issues that ranged from road improvement to divorce, maternity hospitals, abolitionism, and the rights of orphaned children and of unmarried mothers, and she wrote prolifically in defense of her ideas. Among her plays was L’Esclavage des noirs (“Slavery of Blacks”), which was staged at the Théâtre-Français. In 1791, as the French Revolution continued, she published the pamphlet Déclaration des droits de la femme et de la citoyenne (“Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the [Female] Citizen”) as a reply to the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the [Male] Citizen (Déclaration des Droits de l’Homme et du Citoyen), which had been adopted two years earlier by the National Assembly. In the pamphlet she asserted not only that women have the same rights as men but also that children born outside of marriage should be treated as fairly as “legitimate” children in matters of inheritance. 

Adapted from  

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Olympe-de-Gouges 

 

Pionnières! – Olympe de Gouges
(Bibliothèque nationale de France, en français)