Etta Palm d ' Aelders Etta Lubina Johanna Palm d ' Aelders ( April 1743 – 28 March 1799 ) was a Dutch feminist outspoken during the French Revolution . She gave the address " Discourse on the Injustice of the Laws in Favour of Men , at the Expense of Women " to the French National Convention on 30 December 1790 . Biography . Etta Aelders was the daughter of Jacob Aelders van Nieuwenhuys , a merchant , and Agatha Petronella de Sitter . She was born in Groningen and received a good education , which was remarkable for a girl in her age in a non - aristocratic family . She married Christiaan Ferdinand Lodewijk Palm , the son of an attorney , in 1762 . The marriage was not happy and Christiaan disappeared to the East Indies . In 1768 she traveled with Jan Munniks , a young attorney , brother of the celebrated professor of botany Wynoldus Munniks , who had been appointed consul at Messina for the Dutch Republic to France , where she stayed behind because of illness . On the way she met Douwe Sirtema van Grovestins , a former equerry to the widow of Stadtholder William IV , Prince of Orange , who became her lover , and introduced her in higher circles . She left him in 1773 and moved to Paris , where she settled in the Palais Royal area , and became a courtesan for the better classes , taking a number of lovers . In these circumstances she was recruited for the French secret service , possibly by Jean - Frédéric Phélypeaux , comte de Maurepas himself . He sent her to The Hague in 1778 for a short mission , where she again met Jan Munniks , who himself now was a spy in British service . The financial revenues of this mission enabled her to move to a grander house at the Rue Favard in Paris , where she set up a " salon " , where many " political " people met . From this time dates her affectation of the title of " baroness . " Among these people were Dutchmen like Gerard Brantsen , who negotiated the peace between the Republic and Austria in Paris in 1784 , and Apollonius Jan Cornelis Lampsins , a prominent Patriot , who sought refuge in France in 1787 . Around this time she apparently started working for the Dutch Grand Pensionary Laurens Pieter van de Spiegel , to whom she became especially valuable after the events of 14 July 1789 , when her " salon " was frequented by prominent revolutionaries like Jean - Paul Marat , François Chabot and Claude Basire . Etta now became involved in revolutionary politics , and she was especially active in feminist circles , like the " Société fraternelle de l ' un et l ' autre sexe " , " Société Patriotique des Amis de la Vérité " , and " Société Patriotique et de Bienfaisance des Amies de la Vérité " . . She set up shop in The Hague where she now spied on French émigrés like Beaumarchais and Dumouriez . However , events in France forced her to change sides again and she imposed on the Stadtholder himself , referring to her old services . Then in early 1795 the French revolutionary armies invaded the Netherlands . The Batavian Republic was proclaimed and Etta became suspect , because she tried to persuade the French representatives at the negotiations for the Treaty of The Hague ( 1795 ) to use the right of conquest to the detriment of the new Republic . These machinations , in cohorts with her old acquaintance Jan Munniks , brought her to the attention of the Hague " Comité van Waakzaamheid " ( the Dutch equivalent of the French " Comité de surveillance révolutionnaire " ) . Munniks was sentenced to banishment , and Etta was put under arrest in the fortress of Woerden together with her old spymaster Van de Spiegel . She was released at the end of 1798 , but her health had suffered so much , that she died the next March . External links . city