For trusteth wel, it is an impossible
That any clerk wol speke good of wyves,
But if it be of hooly seintes lyves,
Ne of noon oother womman never the mo.
– Geoffrey Chaucer
The Canterbury Tales, The Wife of Bath’s Prologue. The Wife of Bath says that it is an impossibility for any male clerical writer to speak good of women, unless it be the lives of the saints. So a woman has to be a saint to get a good review from them. A regular woman – like the Wife of Bath perhaps, though she’s not typical of women of her time – hasn’t a hope.