Women's Worth
The central argument of The Book of the City of Ladies is that women are worthy contributors to society and deserve to be treated as such. Through the numerous examples provided by the Ladies Reason, Rectitude, and Justice, Christine de Pizan rejects the then popular opinion that women were less valuable than men and that they were more prone to evildoing. Crucially, however, Christine de Pizan does not argue for equal rights between men and women – such an argument would have been dangerously radical for the time she was writing, in the early fifteenth century – but she does reiterate the argument that women are just as virtuous, loving, and powerful as men.
Love
One of the points that Christine de Pizan and the Ladies Reason, Rectitude, and Justice want to emphasize throughout their conversations is that women are more than capable of loving. While this may seem a strange claim to focus on, the beginning of The Book of the City of Ladies details Christine's discouragement when she realizes that male authors have historically portrayed women as superficial, shallow, and incapable of real love. Through the numerous examples provided throughout the text, Christine and her companions showcase how women are not only capable of love, but varied in the types of love they can give – love of one's husband, one's family, and God.
Fidelity
Along with the criticism that women are incapable of love comes the similar erroneous idea that women are less moral than men and therefore more prone to infidelity and promiscuity. The Book of the City of Ladies seeks to refute this claim entirely not only by providing examples of exceptionally loyal women from history but also by alluding to the fact that men, historically, are more likely to transgress in terms of fidelity and sexual morals. While the Ladies provide examples of women who remained dedicated to their loved ones or to God, they subtly contrast these examples with those of men who acted unfaithfully without consequences.
Marriage
One of the ways that Christine and the Ladies prove the value of women is through an examination of the institution of marriage. Whereas the male authors that Christine reads at the beginning of the book argue that women are not worthy of marriage because they are frequently unfaithful and superficial, Christine and her interlocutors present the reader with examples of women whose marriages were the epitome of true love and sacrifice. Moreover, the Ladies argue for a vision of marriage that is based largely on radical mutuality rather than a patriarchal power dynamic in which a man rules over his wife like an authority figure.
Masculinity
As the entire text is inspired by Christine's disappointment in hearing about the moral shortcomings of her sex, a large portion of The Book of the City of Ladies delves into the complexity of masculinity. Specifically, Christine desires to know what type of men would harbor such hateful thoughts toward women. She learns through her interlocutors that men who exhibit these ideas (now known as misogyny) are typically morally misguided themselves, and that they more than likely have some deep-seated psychological problems that need sorting out. Ultimately, the book argues that everyone is capable of good and evil, and that gender plays no role in determining a person's moral disposition.
Christianity
Because of the context in which The Book of the City of Ladies was written (early-15th-century Christian France), religion figures heavily into the narrative that de Pizan crafts. She uses religion not just out of necessity but as a bolstering force to her argument: Christine and the Ladies argue that the claims they are making are endorsed and supported by God. The frequent references to God, Jesus, and especially the Virgin Mary showcase how the text attempts to garner support for its proto-feminist theory by appealing to the reader through what was, at the time, the pervasive power of Christianity.
Independence
Many have pointed out that the end of The Book of the City of Ladies is notably anti-feminist, despite the general consensus that the work is one of the earliest examples of feminist literature. At the end of the book, de Pizan argues that women should obey their husbands and not seek autonomy or independence. This argument contrasts markedly with the examples of independent, powerful women the Ladies have provided over the course of the text. It is likely, then, that de Pizan attempted to dilute her radical arguments with this last part of the book in order to avoid criticism (or worse, punishment), even if she herself may have privately advocated for women's autonomy.
