Christine de Pisan’s Book of the City of Ladies
Christine de Pisan’s Book of the City of Ladies
The term ‘feminism’ dates from the end of the 19th century. It was first coined in Europe,
and shortly afterwards adopted in the US, to refer to the social and political struggle for the
improvement of the position of women in society. The struggle for the vote for women
launched feminism as we now know it: an organized and institutionalized movement. Since
the first feminist wave that started in 19th century there has been a second one in the 1960-ies
to 1980-ies and, arguably, we are witnessing a third feminist wave in the 21st century.
In this course the label ‘feminism’ has also been applied to texts published before the advent
of the first feminist wave: Christine de Pisan’s The Book of the City of Ladies, Mary
Wollstonecraft’s Vindication of the Rights of Women and John Stuart Mill’s The Subjection of
Women.
Suppose a new volume with feminist texts preceding the first feminist wave is issued,
including the texts by de Pisan, Wollstonecraft and Mill All texts in the volume are published in separate chapters with an introduction.
Write the introduction for the Pisan chapter or the Wollstonecraft chapter or the Mill chapter of
this putative volume, paying attention to each of the following aspects:
(a) The main arguments of the text under consideration. Illustrate your answer with at least
one significant quote from the text.
(b) An assessment of its feminist character (under a broad definition of feminism).
(c) Its current relevance: why should we read this text today?
Requirements:
in text referencing
no long quotes
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