Reading Notes: Chapter 6 The Intimately Oppressed

From Advice to a Daugther:

You must first lay it down for a Foundation in general, That there is Inequality in Sexes, and that for the better Oeconomy of the World; the Men, who were to be the Law-givers, had the larger share of Reason bestow'd upon them; by which means your Sex is the better prepar'd for Compliance that is necessary for the performance of those Duties which seem'd to be most properly assign'd to it.... Your Sex wanteth our Reason for your Conduct, and our Strength for your Protection: Ours wanteth your Gentleness to soften, and to entertain us....

You can't find a good woman who still thinks like that any more! What happened to 'em all? ;)

Here's a collection of quotes from various men and women writers through the 19th century. All are found from pages 111 - 113.

• a woman is but an animal, and an animal not of the highest order."
• Religion is exactly what a woman needs, for it givers her that dignity that best suits her dependence.
• Religion is just what woman needs. Without it she is ever restless or unhappy.
• A professor admonished one girl for admiring non-traditional clothing by saying that they are "only one of the many manifestations of that wild spirit of socialism and agrarian radicalism which is at present so rife in our land." And you thought blaming something out of the mainstream on an "enemy of the state" was something new.
• True feminine genius is ever timid, doubtful, and clingingly dependent; a perpetual childhood. The reverse of that is that it is genius - by portraying a "perpetual childhood", a woman could easily manipulate 99% of the men out there.
• Rules for Conjugal and Domestic Happiness warned "Do not expect too much."

What's really said is that I've read posts this year on "Christian" forums debating a "woman's place". Many of the comments, from men and women alike, sound an awful lot like these quotes.