Essential Feminist Reader

Christine de Pizan (1365-c. 1430) The Book of the City of Ladies (France, 1405) For centuries, European writers grappled with the querelles desfemmes, or the "woman question," in response to the work of Christine de Pizan. At a time when both the Catholic Church andmedieval states reinforced patriarchal authority in the family, dePizan questioned the biblical and natural justifications for men'srule over women. Whether cursed by the sin of Eve or presumed to be intellectually as well as physically weaker then men, women generally did not merit education. During the Renaissance, however, women whowished to extend humanist ideas about the importance of education to their own sex defended female intellectual capacity. Born in Veniceand raised in Paris, Christine de Pizan read widely in the subjects ofphilosophy and science (her father was a scholar). When she became ayoung widow, she put her education to good use, supporting her family as a writer. In Epistre au dieu d'Amours (Poems of Cupid, God ofLove) (1399), she defended Eve. In The Book of the City of Ladies, thecharacters Christine converses with are three Ladies-Reason, Rectitude, and Justice-who refute contemporary theories of female inferiority. The Ladies also catalogue the learned women of the Bibleand of classical myth, as well as the women who illustrate female intellectual capability in history. Over the next six hundred years, feminists continued to place female education at the foundation oftheir quest to achieve women's full humanity. One day as I was sitting alone in my study surrounded by books on all kinds of subjects, devoting myself to literary studies, my usual habit, my mind dwelt at length on the weighty opinions of various authors whom I had studied for a long time. I looked up from my book,having decided to leave such subtle questions in peace and to relax by reading some light poetry. With this in mind, I searched for some small book. By chance a strange volume came into my hands, not one of my own, but one which had been given to me along with some others.When I held it open and saw from its title page that it was by Matheolus, I smiled, for though I had never seen it before, I had often heard that like other books it discussed respect for women. I thought I would browse through it to amuse myself. I had not been reading for very long when my good mother called me to refresh myself with some supper, for it was evening. Intending to look at it the next day, I put it down. The next morning, again seated in my study as was my habit, I remembered wanting to examine this book by Matheolus. I started to read it and went on for a little while. Because the subject seemed to me not very pleasant for people who do not enjoy lies, andof no use in developing virtue or manners, given its lack of integrity in diction and theme, and after browsing here and there and reading the end, I put it down in order to turn my attention to more elevated and useful study. But just the sight of this book, even though it was of no authority, made me wonder how it happened that so many different men-and learned men among them-have been and are so inclined to express both in speaking and in their treatises and writings so many wicked insults about women and their behavior. Not only one or two and not even just this Matheolus (for this book had a bad name anyway and was intended as a satire) but, more generally, judging from thetreatises of all philosophers and poets and from all the orators-it would take too long to mention their names-it seems that they all speak from one and the same mouth. They all concur in one conclusion:that the behavior of women is inclined to and full of every vice.Thinking deeply about these matters, I began to examine my characterand conduct as a natural woman and, similarly, I considered other women whose company I frequently kept, princesses, great ladies, womenof the middle and lowFreedman, Estelle B. is the author of 'Essential Feminist Reader ', published 2007 under ISBN 9780812974607 and ISBN 0812974603.