Christine de Pizan contributed to the rhetorical tradition by counteracting the contemporary discourse. Rhetorical scholars have studied her's persuasive strategies. It has been concluded that Christine successfully forged a rhetorical identity for herself, and encouraged women to embrace this identity by counteracting misogynist thinking through persuasive dialogue.[12] Simone de Beauvoir wrote in 1949 that Épître au Dieu d'Amour was "the first time we see a woman take up her pen in defense of her sex" making Christine de Pizan perhaps the West's first feminist, or protofeminist as some scholars prefer to say.