Summary
Lady Justice continues her catalogue of women whose tales of martyrdom will help shore up the City of Ladies. She explains that often, women are met with unwelcome sexual advances from men. She then alludes to some admirable women who successfully disguised themselves as men in monasteries in order to both avoid these sexual advances and be able to practice their faith freely and fully.
Soon, the City of Ladies is complete in its construction and the Ladies ask Christine what she thinks about what has been created.
Christine rejoices in the newfound knowledge that women are not only deserving of God's love, but are indeed capable of knowledge, power, and loyalty.
Christine announces to the women of the city that the City of Ladies will be a refuge for women, where they will be safe from the violent and cruel attacks of men (attacks both physical and theoretical).
She reminds the women that it is their virtue that has brought them to the City, and that they must collectively pursue that virtue in order to keep the City safe and effective.
Christine concludes by cautioning the women not to pursue independence or be dissatisfied being subject to their husbands.
The City, she explains, will be a symbol of women's unity and collective power in a world that is constantly criticizing them.
Analysis
In the final part of The Book of the City of Ladies, Christine completes the construction of the city with the help of Lady Justice, who argues that women ought to be protected from the attacks of men.
These "attacks" are both figurative and literal: on one hand, the book of Mathéolus represents an affront to women, as he accuses them of being superficial and selfish. Indeed, Christine experiences the consequences of this "attack" when she becomes distraught over her status as a woman and begins to lose faith in her own sex (the phenomenon of internalized misogyny).
On the other hand, the attacks Lady Justice describes are also quite real and physical, referring to rape, sexual violence, and domestic violence perpetrated by men against women. Thus, the City of Ladies is itself both a physical and theoretical place of protection, its "walls" becoming barriers against intrusive male criticism as well as threats to women's bodies.
Scholars often point out that the end of The Book of the City of Ladies features a strange contradiction. While the majority of the book is dedicated to celebrating strong, powerful, and virtuous women, Christine ends the text by telling the ladies of the city that they should not scorn being subject to their husbands. In other words, Christine expresses what many consider to be a patriarchal understanding of marriage and gender, in which women must obey their husbands as an authority figure. The contrast between this advice and the arguments made throughout the rest of the book is palpable; it seems as if de Pizan is walking her own proto-feminist arguments backward in this moment.
However, most agree that this conclusion was an important capitulation made by de Pizan as a way of protecting herself from criticism or punishment, as the ideas expressed in The Book of the City of Ladies are radical enough without her outrightly encouraging women to pursue independent lives.
