In the context of the first few chapters of Proverbs, the compiler of the proverbs makes it very clear the book had its genesis in the throne room of Israel. Picture King David carving out some quality time with one of his children, Solomon, for the express purpose of teaching his son some of the lessons he has learned over the years. David, you'll recall, was a "man after God's own heart" (Acts 13:22; 1 Sam 13:14), and he learned many things in his relationship with his God, some the hard way.
David's purpose, then, is to instill in his son Solomon, the godly principles which would guide and guard him throughout his life and his reign. The pithy and memorably constructed proverbs of the day (cf. Amenemope's The Wisdom of Amenemope, a collection of teachings on civil service, which may have predated Solomon's collection of proverbs, some of which bore a striking resemblance to some of Solomon's aphorisms--see the NAS Bible, Updated Edition, Introduction to Proverbs, under "Author") served to encapsulate important life-lessons in short, relatively easy-to-memorize stanzas (sometimes just two).
Since an important theme of the entire book is sexual morality and the importance of young people (particularly the male of the species; i.e., guys) keeping their lives free from the polluting effects of unprincipled and unbridled sexual activity, Solomon chose a woman to personify wisdom to serve as a righteous counterpart to the "immoral woman" who appears and reappears throughout the book. She is alternately labeled "the evil woman," "an adventuress," the "flattering foreigner," an "adulteress," and perhaps many other titles, depending on which version of Proverbs you happen to read.
In other words, the evil woman serves as a foil for the woman who is wisdom personified. Or, they act as foils for one another, as the contrast between the two serves to clarify the differences between them. One woman, for example, is out to bring a young man to ruin, whereas the other woman has only his best long-term interests at heart. One represents immediate gratification followed by regrettable consequences, and the other, delayed gratification followed by gifts that keep on giving. Contrast, for example, the adulteress who is mentioned throughout the book with another woman, this time the virtuous woman, who is described in detail in chapter 31!
Was the personification of virtues a common feature of literature in Solomon's day? Frankly, I do not know. I will leave the answer to that question to another contributor who desires to research it and show his/her work. I will say, however, the Scripture does use "stock characters" who serve in pedagogical/analogical fashion to drive home some hortatory content (e.g., the "story" of two women--again!!--called Oholibah and Ohola, in Ezekiel 23).
Many theologians through the years have suggested that while the God of Scripture is overwhelmingly described as a Father--the very word itself indicating the male of the species, this is not to say that God does not act in a nurturing way toward His creatures. He is described as a mother and as a nursing mother, for example (see Isaiah 49:15 and 66:13). The imagery, whether male or female, then, is illustrative or analogical only, and it serves anthropomorphically to make God understandable to us as finite and frail human beings who, after all, are created in His image and not vice versa. (It has been said, God created us in His image and we've been returning the favor ever since!).
In a PC age, such as ours today, the very notion that the two sexes are somehow inherently different is questioned and even scoffed at. Nevertheless, God is described in the Bible as both a mother and a father, though the father imagery is ubiquitous by contrast.
In conclusion, female imagery is used in both positive and negative ways throughout the Scripture, from the woman Wisdom who lifts up her voice in Proverbs 8 and the "virtuous woman" in Proverbs 31, to the Great Harlot, Babylon the Great, of John's Revelation of Jesus Christ, who is a foil for the virtuous
"woman clothed with the sun, [with] the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars . . . who gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron . . ." (Rev 12:1,5).
Add to the female imagery the scores of godly women mentioned throughout the Bible, and I think it is safe to say the Bible is fair and evenhanded when it comes to balancing the scales of maleness and femaleness within the milieu of a greater, transcendent truth.
