Pizan's The Book Of The City Of Ladies

Are women truly evil? Or is this just made up by stereotypes during the medieval era where women were viewed as unequal to men? Based on “The Book of the City of Ladies”, by Christine de Pizan’s and the writing Maleus Maleficrum by Heinrich Kramemer and Jacob Sprenger these are two writings that depict the same topic of the woman’s status during the medieval era. Both writings discuss the treatment of women during that era, however they develop opposing views on the topic from the authors standpoint.
In Pizan’s, The Book of the City of Ladies, she finds herself discouraged by the idea that women are inferior to men from an intellectual and moral standpoint. She is then presented with three women representing reason, rectitude and justice. These ladies reassure her that women are just as capable of men and that God had made women to stand by men as a companion and not as a slave. Pizan repeatedly asks if women are as capable as men to learn and gather intelligence. Pizan discovers from the ladies that women have not been given the same opportunities as men since it isn’t socially acceptable for women to do so. Pizan ends the conversation by asking if it is true that all women are not good. The ladies reassure her that it wasn’t the case and to look at men and find …show more content…
In Pizan’s writings she speaks about the troubles women face when it comes to a social and intellectual standpoint. In fact, she even claims, “that the behavior of women is inclined to and full of every vice.” This idea that Pizan’s shares about women is equivalent to how Kramemer and Sprenger describe women in their writings. According to Kramemer and Sprenger women are more susceptible to the wickedness of witchcraft. Their writings essentially speak very ill of women which seems to share a similar view of what Pizan saw when she began her