In the opening passages of her 1405 Le Livre de la Cité des Dames (The Book of the City of Ladies), Christine de Pizan reports that she has been reading the misogynist writings of Matheolus, a late thirteenth-century French writer. She is overwhelmed by his negative opinion of women, which is echoed in the writings of many other male writers. Convinced by these negative portrayals of her sex, she laments her fate in being born a woman. At this moment of despair over her biological destiny, Reason, Justice, and Rectitude appear and announce that she is to be the champion for her sex. Specifically, she is to step in where “nobles hommes” have failed their task:

This passage adroitly authorizes Christine's writing project: the personified virtues proclaim her “predestinee,” establishing her divinely sanctioned role to correct the written record. Their injunction plays on the project's figurative and literal registers: she is to construct, through her writing, a figurative city where women can shelter from misogynist slander, and where discussion of women's virtues can take place. This imaginary city will be a locus for articulating ideas with very real consequences: they will correct women's misrepresentation and increase women's honor.