Declamation on the Nobility and Preeminence of the Female Sex

Originally published in 1529, this work argues that women are more than equal to men in all things that really matter, including the public spheres from which they have long been excluded. Rather than directly refuting prevailing wisdom, Agrippa uses women’s superiority as a rhetorical device and overturns the misogynistic interpretations of the female body in Greek medicine, the Bible, Roman and canon law, theology, moral philosophy and politics. He raised the question of why women were excluded and provided answers based not on sex but on social conditioning, education and the prejudices of their more powerful oppressors. His declamation, disseminated through the printing press, illustrated the power of that new medium, soon to be used to generate a larger reformation of religion.