Treasure Of The City Of Ladies Analysis

Christine de Pizan is a woman who experienced multiple societal roles throughout the late Medieval and Renaissance time period. She made a living from her writing concerning the debate over misogyny. Pizan’s handbook The Treasure of the City of Ladies serves as a behavior manual for women during the medieval era of harsh realities (Dufrense, 1995). Women are seen as inferior to men, with limited roles such as mothers, daughters, wives, nuns, or prostitutes (Dufrense, 1995). Hierarchies of society are divided into three classes: clergy, nobility, and peasantry. Pizan educated all women of this time, from those with power and authority to the poorest peasant women (Dufrense, 1995). The same societal concerns can be applied to influential women today, specifically Hillary Clinton’s behavior in the media following her email scandal. A comparative analysis of Pizan’s behavioral guidelines to Hilary Clinton’s actions will determine if wealthy women of the 21st century are still following the advice from The Treasure of the City of Ladies.
Christine de Pizan’s early life influences her behavioral theories concerning women. She was born in Venice in 1363, and followed her farther to France where she received education and experienced royalty due to his physician consulting skills for King Charles V of

France (Dufrense, 1995). Her continuous dedication to intellectual pursuits enabled and inspired her to educate women on how to behave and live life based upon their status in society (Dufrense, 1995).
The Treasure of the City of Ladies was one of the first pieces of women’s rhetoric.

Her vision of a “feminine college” included three allegorical daughters of God—Reason, Rectitude, and Justice who “represent the Three Virtues most important to a women’s success”(Redfern, 1995, 74). Pizan does not consider herself a rhetorician, nor does she label her work as rhetoric, but “her instruction from the book provides the empowerment of women’s speech in both private and public matters” (Redfern, 1995, 74). From Pizan’s work, “her most important lesson is that women’s success depends on their ability to manage and mediate by speaking and writing effectively”(Redfern, 1995,

74).
Pizan’s female figures display her knowledge of previous communication theorist, such as Plato and Aristotle. Pizan expresses concern for the importance of communication skills, especially among noble women. For example, in her book, the female character of Reason reassures that “God endowed women with the facility of speech”(Redfern, 1995, 81), and through Rectitude honorable women are “to say and uphold the truth”(Redfern, 1995, 81). Pizan also comments on the importance of achieving success through men, “even in roles subordinate to men’s, women could increase their strength and influence by attending carefully to the cause, appearance, and consequence of each interactive behavior”(Redfern, 1995, 88). Noble women obtaining professional relationships with men for advantageous purpose is still valued today.
Pizan also focuses on women attaining the vital skill of peacemaking, “and so this lady will be…an advocate and mediator between the prince and her husband and her people”(Redfren, 1995, 86). She believes that women of higher class “must know the right things to say so that lower class visitors feel comfortable in her home”(Redfern, 1995, 90). Pizan emphasizes the importance of women speaking the truth, for example, “In truth they are good manners and behavior. And what is the use of these good manners and behavior? They perfect the noble person and cause her to be well regarded”(Redfern, 1995, 87)”. Pizan believed truth and discourse should be a part of every woman’s moral existence. From her perspective, “it is more important to speak the truth than with a persuasive eloquence”(Redfern, 1995, 87).
Christine de Pizan’s behavioral manual can still be applied to noble women of today’s society, such as Hillary Clinton. Hillary Clinton was elected to the U.S Senate in 2001, and she became the only American First Lady to hold national office. In 2009, President Obama appointed her to Secretary of State, and in 2015 she announced her plans to run again for the U.S presidency. Similar to Pizan’s guidelines, Hillary’s marriage to former President Bill Clinton allows her to achieve immeasurable accomplishments as a woman. In 1998, she was engulfed with the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal, but chose to stand by her husband, while her private life was continuously investigated and shared with the public—another direct correlation to Pizan’s concerns for women’s private affairs becoming public.
However, Hillary is currently embroiled in controversy pertaining to her use of a private email system while she was Secretary of State. The email scandal raises various issues concerning national security, but according to the Wall Street Journal, Clinton’s response is “it was for convenience, I thought it would be easier to carry just one device for my work and my personal emails instead of two”(Strassel, 2015, para 2). Clinton continues to avoid the truth by stating, “there is no classified material,” when 400 of the emails handed over contained classified information. She also publically stated, “[the sever] had numerous safeguards. It was one property guarded by the Secret Service”(Strassel, 2015, para 4), when there is evidence of her server being attacked at least five times from hackers in Russia.
One of Pizan’s focuses regarding noble women is their ability to speak the truth versus the use of persuasion. In this case, Hillary Clinton does not speak the truth on multiple accounts throughout the email scandal in attempt to maintain her reputation and image. The concept of women’s roles has immensely improved since the medieval era, however women holding political positions still deal with some of the same challenges, for example creditability. It is apparent in Clinton’s previous years of her life, she was within Pizan’s guidelines of trying to make peace with other countries, or welcoming people into the White House while she was the First Lady. The demand to deceive the public in the email scandal ultimately hurts Hillary’s ethos. Hillary failed Pizan’s behavioral manual due to deceiving people she represents, which causes her to be “not well regarded” in Pizan’s perspective. If Hillary had followed Pizan’s advice to speak the truth, rather than persuade, she would be in a more successful position during her campaign to be the first female president of the United States.