"Escapando de la molicie mujeril": virtudes femeninas y atributos de género en los tratados de defensa de las mujeres (siglos XIV y XV)

This essay studies gender representation in fourteenth and fifteenth century’s treatises in defence of women, written within the context of the Querelle des Femmes. Taking the undoubtedly patriarchal nature of Western tradition as a starting point, the author identifies the most valued qualities of women and examines the vision of feminine virtue in these works, specially in Álvaro de Luna’s Libro de las virtuosas e claras mugeres. This analysis shows that feminine virtue is often linked to female performance in fields that were traditionally deemed as masculine, such as politics and war; in other cases, it appears conditioned to self-sacrifice and renunciation of female features and functions, like sexual activity, motherhood, or external feminine traits. The ascertainment of this fact calls into question the role of such defence treatises as effective statements of feminine virtue.