Treasure Of The City Of Ladies Analysis

Christine de Pizan is a woman who experienced multiple societal roles throughout the late Medieval and Renaissance time period. She made a living from her writing concerning the debate over misogyny. Pizan’s handbook The Treasure of the City of Ladies serves as a behavior manual for women during the medieval era of harsh realities (Dufrense, 1995). Women are seen as inferior to men, with limited roles such as mothers, daughters, wives, nuns, or prostitutes (Dufrense, 1995). Hierarchies of society are divided into three classes: clergy, nobility, and peasantry. Pizan educated all women of this time, from those with power and authority to the poorest peasant women (Dufrense, 1995). The same societal concerns can be applied to influential women today, specifically Hillary Clinton’s behavior in the media following her email scandal. A comparative analysis of Pizan’s behavioral guidelines to Hilary Clinton’s actions will determine if wealthy women of the 21st century are still following the advice from The Treasure of the City of Ladies. Christine de Pizan’s early life influences her behavioral theories concerning women. She was born in Venice in 1363, and followed her farther to France where she received education and experienced royalty due to his physician consulting skills for King Charles V of

Her vision of a “feminine college” included three allegorical daughters of God—Reason, Rectitude, and Justice who “represent the Three Virtues most important to a women’s success”(Redfern, 1995, 74). Pizan does not consider herself a rhetorician, nor does she label her work as rhetoric, but “her instruction from the book provides the empowerment of women’s speech in both private and public matters” (Redfern, 1995, 74). From Pizan’s work, “her most important lesson is that women’s success depends on their ability to manage and mediate by speaking and writing effectively”(Redfern, 1995,