ABSTRACT
Christine de Pisan aimed to counter the negative image of women in literature, and, in her last work, the Song of Joan of Arc; she celebrated the contemporary, and not just historical, achievements of her sex. Women played a valuable and important role in the transformational changes that occurred in medieval society at this time, through their own initiative and achievement in exploiting the largely economic opportunities that presented themselves. Any gains women made were effectively nullified by the fact that society ensured men were rewarded more and better, thus maintaining women's subordinate position. Most scholars reject the Mary/Eve dichotomy as too crude to encompass the complexity of the female experience during the middle Ages. Indeed, one could argue that, to project modern, feminist expectations upon medieval women—whereby they are always judged based on standards relative to men–is almost setting them up for depressing failure and is perhaps treating them in almost as demeaning a fashion as the patriarchy itself.
