ABSTRACT
The Querelle des femmes was, and perhaps still is, a powerful cultural and literary phenomenon based on assessments of the nature of women and extending into assessments of the nature of men. Although the querelle proper is a product of the late middle ages, its agonistic rhetoric and subject matter hark back to the classical period. In Renaissance Feminism (1990), Constance Jordan summarizes the extent of the querelle at the height of its popularity. She writes that it was:
Jordan’s assessment neatly encapsulates the ways in which the querelle spread. Moreover, she touches on a salient aspect of the debate: she adds that it was about ‘the nature of authority’ and power as much or even more than it was about the nature of women.5
