My study considers the connections between the sex of the protagonist in Spanish picaresque fiction, the disorder that follows when female characters do not behave according to social norms and the response to this disorder that the female picaresque suggests. In its treatment of prostitution, the female picaresque novel not only shows a concern with unrestrained women, but also offers a literary response to a social question that was very controversial in its day. Although officially legal in early modern Spain, prostitution was approved by pragmatists as a "lesser evil" and condemned by moralists as a license to sin. As part of the same discourse, picaresque texts demonstrate that when the picara accomplishes some success by exploiting the masculine values of honor, bravery and loyalty, society at large avenges her deviation by restoring order. By punishing the fictional picara and to a larger extent every woman who behaves like her, the texts not only reaffirm the values of the hegemonic power but also calm the anxieties of their male readers. This strategy allows the reader to see how the picara is finally controlled and reduced by the institutions (matrimony, legal or social punishment) that secure that power.My analysis centers on works conventionally accepted as part of the female picaresque tradition like La picara Justina and La hija de Celestina, as well as the lesser known Vida y costumbres de la madre Andrea. I also focus on La Lozana andaluza as a precursor of the picaresque and on Don Quijote as a commentary on both the genre of the picaresque and the gender of its protagonists. It is my belief that literary texts of the female picaresque, together with moral treatises, manuals of conduct and the laws that limit prostitutes' behavior apply to the condition of women in general. There is an interplay between the fictional discourse of lust, sex, disease, and misogyny and the discourse of legal and moral control in early modern Spain whose main objective is to control women who are out of control.