The woman question

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In historiography, querelle des femmes ("dispute of women"), indicates an early-modern debate on the nature of women. This literary genre developed in Italian and French early humanist circles and was led by numerous women scholars, who wrote in Latin and vernacular to counter dominant misogynistic literature.

While the French phrase querelle des femmes deals specifically with the late medieval and Renaissance periods, the phrase woman question came to indicate feminist campaigns for social change after the 1700s, culminating in the later 19th century, with women's struggle to gain more recognition and relevance in modern industrialized societies. Issues of women's suffrage, reproductive rights, bodily autonomy, property rights, legal rights, medical rights, and marriage increasingly concerned public opinion in newspapers, political rallies and manifestos, conferences, pamphlets, and intellectual discussion. While women were leading the debate over a change in the roles played by women in the society, they initially represented a minority voice. Issues of marriage and sexual freedom often divided female public opinion.^{[citation needed]}