The gender pain gap

In 1405 Christine de Pizan, a historian, poet and author - the only woman in France earning her living as a professional writer - composed The Book of the City of Ladies. It was a utopian dreamscape where female artistry, inventiveness, courage, creativity and thought were revered and celebrated. Behind the walls of her allegorical city, women and their accomplishments - both contemporary and historical - were protected from the rampant misogyny that permeated literature of the Middle Ages. Early in the book, Christine, the narrator, is visited by three virtues in the guise of ladies who guide the creation of her city. With Lady Reason, Christine discusses the “vile and disgusting things” that certain male authors had claimed about women’s bodies.

One anonymous offender wrote a popular treatise around the late 13th or early 14th century titled (“De Secretis Mulierium”). Ostensibly, Secrets of Women aimed to enlighten celibate monks and churchmen as to “the nature of women” and the female body’s mystifying processes. The author covered topics including how embryos are generated, aids and impediments to conception, and diseases of the reproductive organs. But this was no midwifery manual or humane guide to healing. was a punishingly sexist pseudo-medical