Lady Sophia Fermor, Woman Not Inferior to Man: Or, a Short and Modest Vindication of the Natural Right of the Fair-Sex to a Perfect Equality of Power, Dignity and Esteem with the Men

18th-century 18th-century-feminism feminism male-privilege misogyny patriarchy women-s-education women-s-oppression

I wou’d therefore exhort all my sex (…) to betake themselves to the improvement of their minds (…) and (…) shew our selves worthy something from them, as much above their bare esteem, as they conceit themselves above us. In a word, let us shew them, by what little we do without aid of education, the much we might do if they did us justice; that we may force a blush from them, if possible, and compel them to confess their own baseness to us, and that the worst of us deserve much better treatment than the best of us receive.