- 07/03/2013
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Christine de Pizan was one of the first feminists, who had managed to challenge conventional, social norms in the man-dominated society. She insisted on the equality of men and women that was a revolutionary idea for her time. The life and work of Christine de Pizan is worth studying because she was an outstanding person who has raised the struggle of women for their rights to a qualitatively new level. In such a context, the current paper focuses on the life and work of Christine de Pizan.
In this respect, it is important to lay emphasis on the fact that the personal life of Christine de Pizan is not less significant than her work and participation in the feminist movement. Christine de Pizan has experienced numerous problems other women experienced on the regular basis but, unlike other women, she has managed to rebel against the conventional norms and she preferred to struggle for her rights instead of obeying to unjust and unfair, biased social norms imposed on the society by men. At the same time her work as a feminist proved to be very important and her books, such as “The Book of the Cities of Ladies” (1404-1405) was one of the first manifestations of the conscious rise of women in the struggle for their rights.
Christine de Pizan paid a lot of attention to the change of the public attitude to women. At this point, she confronted numerous difficulties because she lived in the time when women were treated as second-class citizens, if not to say commodities, whereas men played the dominant role in the society and hold the control over political and economic life of the society. In such a situation, it is quite natural that Christine de Pizan had to overcome existing social, gender-related biases.
At the same time, her ideas concerning the possibility of equality between men and women was a challenge to the social norms and standards to the extent that it is possible to speak about the revolutionary character of her ideas. In this respect, it is worth mentioning her book “The Book of the City of Ladies”, where the author reveals her vision of the society, where women can perform the same functions and duties as men do. In actuality, in the time when Christine de Pizan lived, the very idea of the existence of the society or community where women ruled was revolutionary and practically unthinkable. Women were believed to be unable to participate in the political life of the society and take decision which could affect socio-economic development of the society. In fact, such cases were rather exceptional than normal.
In fact, Christine de Pizan attempted to show that women could be equal to men. Even though her position in regard to the social standing of women challenged dominant social norms, she still remained a convinced proponent of equality of men and women. In this respect, it is possible to speak about the natural sense of justice which was deep-rooted in the consciousness of Christine de Pizan, which she attempted to share with other people. Her literary works contributed consistently to the spread of her ideas in Europe and strengthening of the position of women in the society.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.