Van Dyke, Christina. "'Lewd, Feeble, and Frail': Humility Formulae, Medieval Women, and Authority." Oxford Studies in Medieval Philosophy 10 (2022): 1-23.
Abstract: "This paper argues that medieval European Christian women often used humility topoi not to express genuine lack of knowledge or education, but in order to establish themselves as authorities within contemplative philosophical discussions. Humility formulae were ubiquitous in such discussions and typically used by both men and women to provide an explanation of the text's larger purpose and a defense of the author's claim to write it, in addition to situating themselves respectfully with respect to their presumed audience. Women writers in this period frequently also employed humility formulae to foreground objections to their right to write on these subjects qua women, and then to explicitly address those objections in the voice of the only universally recognized medieval authority: God." — [Reproduced from the article page on the Oxford Academic website.]