"They have many sympathetic sensations, good-heartedness, and compassion, prefer the beautiful to the useful, and gladly turn abundance of circumstance into parsimony, in order to support expenditure on adornment and glitter. They have very delicate feelings in regarded to the least offense, and are exceedingly precise to notice the most trifling lack of attention and respect towards them." .
Women were expected to act as these shallow, emotional creatures that had no depth mentally and could serve as helpless, reliant, and obedient wives to their ruling and overbearing husbands. It was expected of women to follow through with their assumed roles and position in society as well as in their family. All that was expected of them was to find a husband, be dependent on their husband, and to.
improve herself by being a better wife and mother to her children. What is so fascinating about these expectations and assumptions of women is the simple fact that it was purely accepted. Questions were never asked, and maybe at times, never even thought about. This was the way things functioned and operated and women were supposed to accept it and be content. They were never given the chance to question their own rights or share their beliefs about what they wanted. It was this constant battle of superiority between men and women and this entitlement of men who believed they were above women in every aspect possible; and women went along with it because they did not know any better. .
Hundreds of years ago in the 17th and 18th centuries, women were never given a chance to develop their minds intellectually with any sort of high education. Any education other than what pertained to managing a household and raising children and being a wife was never an option for women. A few authors argued that it was for women's protection to not know the real things of the world; but really behind it all was a common, underlying belief that men feared if women knew of their poor treatment they would not be submissive and start to defy their husbands.
