The work begins with the narrator feeling despondent after reading the 13th-century poet Matheolus maintaining the sinfulness of women and how they corrupt and ruin men's lives, especially through marriage. 1509-1564), who recognized their wives as equal partners in their work and lives, still believed that women were the 'weaker vessel' and had no place in public life among 'the affairs of men.' Pizan's vision of a metaphorical 'city of ladies' in which women were valued on par with men would not be realized until the 20th century and, even now, continues to be challenged and rejected, usually on religious grounds, just as it was in Pizan's own time. Even the great reformers such as Martin Luther (l. Women's lives did change after the Reformation, but the medieval view of them persisted. Just as the lower class in Germany hoped for an elevation in their status after the Reformation began, women in general seem to have hoped for the same as evidenced by the writings of female Reformers such as Argula von Grumbach (l.
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