- In case you were wondering, Christine de Pizan is still out in the field digging holes with Lady Reason (they're digging foundations for the City of Ladies). Since digging can get pretty boring, Christine keeps putting questions to Lady Reason. Her next question is about why women aren't allowed to be lawyers or judges (which was the case back in Pizan's day).
- Lady Reason answers that God has made it so different people are good at different jobs. But this doesn't mean that one group should rule over the other. They should simply accept that they're good at different things and live in mutual respect.
- Some modern people would no doubt think that this is a bad call on Pizan's part. After all, it's a good thing that women today are allowed to be judges, lawyers, doctors, or any number of other things that used to be allocated to men.
- That being said, Lady Reason tells Christine that women are totally capable of governing countries and cities as well as (or better than) men. And with this, she promises to give some examples.
- Lady Reason starts with the story of Empress Nicaula, who ruled over Ethiopia and made the country into a modern civilization by wiping out all its old laws and customs. This woman is so great that even the Bible compliments her at one point.
- Not only that, but this Nicaula woman was also as educated as any man of her time. Oh yeah, and she never got married because she did just fine on her own.
- Lady Reason isn't happy with just giving one example of a woman who did a great job of leading a country, so she decides to give more. The first is a Queen of France named Fredegund, who took control of France following her husband's death. It turns out that this woman was personally really mean; but she still managed to do a great job of running France and preventing the barons from killing her son, who'd grow up to be king.
- Lady Reason has many more examples of Queens who ruled their countries very well, which definitely helps demolish the idea that women should never hold positions of authority. Lady Reason insists that if husbands could only know the good sense that their wives have, the entire household would be better off. As far as judges and lawyers go, there are enough men out there trying to do these things. Lady Reason basically says here that the world doesn't need any more people wanting to be lawyers.
- While digging the foundations for the City of Ladies, Christine de Pizan insists to Lady Reason that women have weak bodies compared to men and that they (women) are cowards by nature. These are two of the main reasons why men don't respect women.
- Lady Reason, however, argues that it isn't a person's body that counts, but a person's mind. Besides, nature has a way of giving great minds to people whose bodies are weak. The great philosopher Aristotle, for example, apparently had a deformed body. But he made up for it with his amazing mind.
- On top of everything she's said, Lady Reason argues that women have shown just as much great courage throughout history as men have.
- And with that, Lady Reason shows Christine that they've come to the end of their digging for the City of Ladies. Now it's time to start collecting stones to build the buildings.
- Christine and Lady Reason start putting down stones for the buildings of the City of Ladies. While they do this, Lady Reason tells Christine the story of the brave Queen Semiramis, who ruled over her kingdom wisely and even advised her husband on war tactics.