Sections 1 The object of this Essay is to explain as clearly as I am able, the grounds of an opinion… 2 In every respect the burthen is hard on those who attack an almost universal opinion. 3 It is equally unavailing for me to say that those who deny to women any freedom or privilege… 4 I do not mention these difficulties to complain of them; first, because it would be useless;… 5 The generality of a practice is in some cases a strong presumption that it is, or at all… 6 They convert what was a mere physical fact into a legal right, give it the sanction of… 7 That this statement should have the effect of a paradox, is in some respects creditable to… 8 The truth is, that people of the present and the last two or three generations have lost all… 9 And though the original law of force remained in full operation between them and their… 10 If people are mostly so little aware how completely, during the greater part of the duration… 11 Such is the power of an established system, even when far from universal; when not only in… 12 Every one of the subjects lives under the very eye, and almost, it may be said, in the… 13 Some will object, that a comparison cannot fairly be made between the government of the male… 14 The smallest acquaintance with human life in the middle ages, shows how supremely natural… 15 But, it will be said, the rule of men over women differs from all these others in not being… 16 All causes, social and natural, combine to make it unlikely that women should be… 17 Can it be doubted that any of the other yokes which mankind have succeeded in breaking,… 18 For, what is the peculiar character of the modern world—the difference which chiefly… 19 The modern conviction, the fruit of a thousand years of experience, is, that things in which… 20 If this general principle of social and economical science is not true; if individuals, with… 21 At present, in the more improved countries, the disabilities of women are the only case,… 22 The least that can be demanded is, that the question should not be considered as prejudged… 23 Neither does it avail anything to say that the nature of the two sexes adapts them to their… 24 Of all difficulties which impede the progress of thought, and the formation of well-grounded… 25 Even the preliminary knowledge, what the differences between the sexes now are, apart from… 26 To make even this one case yield any result, the woman must be worth knowing, and the man… 27 And this time has not come; nor will it come otherwise than gradually. 28 One thing we may be certain of—that what is contrary to women's nature to do, they never… 29 The general opinion of men is supposed to be, that the natural vocation of a woman is that… 30 If they mean what they say, their opinion must evidently be, that men do not render the…
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