These issues would have been especially important to her because they had a direct impact on her life. The "Social Contract Between Man and Woman " she proposed would have protected her after her husband 's death by providing her with some inheritance, and the employment and tax equalities she proposed would have made it easier for her to support herself after the death of her husband.
These two documents were written during the French Revolution; the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen was approved by the National Assembly in August of 1789, and the Declaration of the Rights of Women was written and published as a direct response in 1791. France was in the midst of a period of revolution and social change, and De Gouges was adamant that these changes apply to women as well as to men. This belief as well as her public opposition of the Reign of Terror, led to her being executed as a traitor in