During the modern period in which Poulain lived, France (and much of the rest of Europe) was engaged in a literary, philosophical, and cultural debate known as the Querelle des femmes or "the woman question." It chiefly concerned the nature of women and their status in society. Poulain provided significant and quite radical philosophical contributions to this discourse.

In each year from 1673 to 1675, Poulain published one of a series of three feminist treatises: the Equality, the Education, and the Excellence. Beginning with De l’égalité des deux sexes [On the Equality of the Two Sexes], Poulain uses Cartesian reasoning to argue that "women are as noble, as perfect, and as capable as men." Its sequel, De l’éducation des dames [On the Education of Ladies] was published the following year. In it, Poulain provides a guide, presented through a series of dialogues, intended to encourage women to seek their own liberation from patriarchy through education. The third treatise, published in 1675, is entitled De l’excellence des hommes, contre l’égalité des sexes [On the Excellence of Men, against the Equality of the Sexes]. Unlike the first two works, which appeal primarily to reason and discredit the argumentative power of tradition, the Excellence confronts traditional arguments for patriarchy found in Scripture and other religious texts with counter-interpretations of those texts which suggest the equality of men and women.