[The scientific conceptualization of the female being. Metaphoric use in Galen's writings]

This article, a gender study of the writings of Galen, aims to investigate the reasons for the sustained claims of the inferiority of feminine nature with respect to masculine nature. We offer a reconstruction of the social values held by Galen, which conferred to him an androcentric model of knowledge that differed from the other scientific forms in existence at that time. We show that descriptions of the female organism are assiduously associated with maleness or nature, which we interpret as a metaphorical and exemplifying use for the transmission of ethical norms, and the credibility of the doctrine.