Jane Anger

JA may have been an actual woman; or the text that was published in this name in 1589 may have been written by a man. There is no doubt of the interest and value of the feminist polemic (in verse as well as prose) which bears her name. It is a contribution to the querelle des femmes (debate about women) which for generations pitted attacks on women with defences of them. Women were a favourite topic for academic disputation; sometimes the same polemicist would argue on each side in turn.