The book city of the ladies was written to talk about the virtues of the women in terms of the virtues and the qualities that they have when it comes to dealing with various issues that they face in their daily lives. The book has various feminist arguments in the eyes of a woman how they see the world. The book shows what women go through in terms of challenges and the achievements that they have been able to accomplish over the years in getting the rights and the way they are treated by society. The book addresses various concepts which include femininity, masculinity, equality, misogyny, gender roles, biology, cultural construction, and sexism, arguing publicly with one another.

Among the characters in the book include Christine, who is involved in various projects as ordained by God. Christine loved reading books in order to have more knowledge about the things she didn’t know (De Pisan, & Richards, 1983). Among the books she read was a book that was written in praise of women, the book claims to praise women whereas it has offensive messages towards the women. The book claims that women are lesser beings when compared to the men counterparts and therefore they should be treated lesser. The book reflects how women are treated in the society, they are denied equal opportunities with the men and therefore they don’t get the chance to utilize their talents and skills.

Lady Reason is another character in the book which is hardworking, the virtue of hard working is shown where guides and helps Christine in erecting buildings in which worthy women were to live in. Lady Reason shows that it’s not a must for one to have masculinity for them to be able to perform various tasks that are considered to be for men. Women too have their roles that they should be allowed to perform. The author through Lady Reason informs the society that women should not be left out in the development of the community because they do not have masculinity. The ladies deserve to be involved in various activities without discrimination to make their contribution to the growth of the communities. Christen and lady Reason was able to dig the ground and built a house for women.

The ladies in the book had a dream of building a city where women could live comfortable and do whatever they like (Williamson, 2017). Christine and lady Reason discusses how the noble women had lived in the past and maintained well-ordered and magnificent courts to rival the king. This clearly shows that men and women are equal if they are given equal opportunities; they can even outperform men. Among the women who were successful in rivalry with the king include queen Fredegunde who was well known for making wise decisions. The queen represents how women can perform various tasks better than men.

The book elevates the feminist argument when the ladies want to build a city for women, Friedan and Steinem outline how the women are oppressed by men who want women to become their servants (De Pisan, & Richards, 1983). The women believe that they have greater strengths that have not had the opportunity to utilize. The women have the intellectual capacity but are judged because they are women. The intellectual capacity of women is lost because of the cultural construction where the culture does not allow the women to work side by side with men. The men criticize women because of their feminist nature, but not women have failed when given opportunities.

Christine and Lady Rectitude discusses the misconceptions about marriage and the sexism around marriages. They raise concern on how the men grade women when they are searching for women to marry (Gaunt, 2017). Society believes that all men can marry women to form marriage while they believe that not all women can be married. Lady Rectitude refutes that women should not be used as sex tools by men who marry them not because they love them but because they want to convince in getting sex. The ladies believe that marriages should be done on the basis of love.

Lady Justice suggests that the new city that will be built for women should be led by a queen who would run all the activities of the city (De Pisan, & Richards, 1983). Having a woman to lead the city would eliminate the myths that women cannot become successful leaders. The men don’t want to give women leadership opportunities because they believe they don’t have the capacity by default. The city would be run by women to lead their fellow women, and by doing so, they would offer an example to people who believe women cannot become leaders. The women living in the city would find the solutions to all the challenges that would come through.

The desire by the women to build their city shows the various values that the women have which include reason, rectitude, and justice. The lack of virtues in the communities that the women live in makes their life face challenges because they don’t get equal treatment with their men counterparts. Christine believes that men do not want women to be educated to eliminate the influence that they can bring in society and challenge the men. She believes that if women were given the opportunity to become educated the society would become better because they would offer an equal contribution to the men. Some women even have better intellectual capacity than the men; hence they would do some things better than men; this makes the men threatened; hence they don’t want them to have the educational opportunity.

Lady Reason believes that men hate women and that the reason they don’t want them to prosper, she believes that if men loved the women, they would allow them to have opportunities that make them become better persons (De Pisan, & Richards, 1983). She argues that men act against the wishes of God who intended the men to have equal opportunities with women so that they could help each other in dealing with the various challenges that they come across. Men disobeyed God and become selfish by wanting to control the men. The women criticize the women for lacking the capacity to deal with the various challenges that they come across; they blame them for being weaker while it’s the same people who have denied them opportunities.

In conclusion, the city of ladies is a book that talks about the challenges that women go through. The women are treated as lesser gender by society; this prompted the women to want to build a city precisely for women where they would have the freedom to do whatever they like. The women perform an essential role in society; hence they need to be given equal opportunities as men. If given the opportunity they will contribute to the development of society.

References

De Pisan, C., & Richards, E. J. (1983). The book of the city of ladies (p. 70). New York: Persea Books.

Williamson, D (2017). The Book of the City of Ladies Summary. Retrieved from https://www.gradesaver.com/the-book-of-the-city-of-ladies/study-guide/summary

Gaunt, S. (2017). The Book of the City of Ladies. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/10130771/The_Book_of_the_City_of_Ladies