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Hidden Figures

With the selection of Hidden Figures as the One Book choice for this Academic Year, we wanted to feature other people in history that were forgotten. This page will serve as a way to emphasize those with great accomplishments who were erased from history. If you have a suggestion for a Hidden Figure, please reach out!

Olympus de Gouges

Image of Olympus de Gouges 

Our first woman is Olympus de Gouges (1748-93) of France:
After the execution of Louis XVII and Marie Antoinette, Olympus de Gouges advocates for women’s rights and abolition across France: if a woman can be executed like a man, shouldn’t she have the same basic rights? Following the Declaration of the Rights of Man, which catalyzed the French Revolution, de Gouges responded with The Rights of Woman. She was an outspoken critic of slavery and of unequal rights for women during revolutionary France. In the end, she was accused of sedition and executed by guillotine.