The world’s first feminist vs. Robespierre
5 min readMay 7, 2017
Born in 1748 — the bastard daughter of a butcher — Marie Gouze had even fewer rights than most French women of her class. Her petite bourgeois family kept her from absolute poverty, but “illegitimate” birth condemned her to low social status. In any case, girls from the provinces rarely gained the opportunity to achieve any kind of distinction.
