If we take a survey of ages and of countries, we shall find the women, almost -- without exception -- at all times and in all places, adored and oppressed. Man, who has never neglected an opportunity of exerting his power, in paying homage to their beauty, has always availed himself of their weakness. He has been at once their tyrant and their slave. [.......]

Yet such, I am sorry to say, is the lot of woman over the whole earth. Man with regard to them, in all climates and in all ages, has been either an insensible husband or an oppressor;

Society, instead of alleviating their position, is to them the source of new miseries. More than one half of the globe is covered with savages; and among all these people women are completely wretched. Man, in a state of barbarity, equally cruel and indolent, active by necessity, but inclined to repose, is acquainted with little more than the effects of love; and, having none of those moral ideas which only can soften the empire of force, is led to consider it as his supreme law, subjecting to his despotism those whom reason has made his equal ......

[Paine quotes Professor Miller, speaking of the women of barbarous nations] "Nothing can exceed the dependence and subjection in which they are kept, or the toil and drudgery which they are obliged to undergo. The husband, when he is not engaged in some warlike exercise, indulges himself in idleness, and devolves upon his wife the whole burden of his domestic affairs. He disdains to assist her in any of those servile employments. She sleeps in a different bed, and is seldom permitted to have any conversation or correspondence with him."

If a woman were to defend the cause of her sex, she might address man in the following manner.

"How great is your injustice? If we have an equal right with you to virtue, why should we not have equal right to praise? The public esteem ought to wait upon merit. Our duties are different from yours, but they are not therefore less difficult to fulfill, or of less consequence to society: They are the fountains of your felicity, and the sweetness of life. We are wives and mothers. 'Tis we who form the union and cordiality of families. 'Tis we who soften that savage rudeness which considers everything as due to force, and which would involve man with man in eternal war. We cultivate in you that humanity which makes you feel for the misfortunes of others, and our tears forewarn you of your own danger. Nay, you cannot be ignorant that we have need of courage not less than you."

In the early 1980s, George Gilder wrote a book called Men and Marriage. Gilder's theory is that civilization would not have developed unless the natural tendencies of men were subordinated to the natural tendencies of women. Women, he explained, are by nature more nurturing and caring. Men, if left to their predisposition, are prone to roam, and to avoid taking responsibility for anything but their own desires. But when a man and a woman mated and the woman gave birth, the man was forced to assume responsibility and subordinate his natural tendencies. Rush Limbaugh calls Gilder's "Men and Marriage" a fascinating book, emphasizing the broad impact it has had, even upon the likes of Ronald Reagan. [p 195]

"There is no influence to be compared with that of a good woman over the life of a young man. It means everything to him, his success in every phase of life. Men are by nature coarse and brutal; it is the influence of woman which softens them. But no influence is productive of the best and surest results unless we make ourselves susceptible to it. If we lack faith in woman, if we fail in the right ideal of womanhood, all her influence will be naught upon us.... Man's best friend is the woman who loves him. That should be the faith of every young man toward woman; that should be his absolute conviction, and he should show it by an attitude of respect and deference toward her."

[Edward Bok, 1902. Quoted by Beverly LaHaye. The Restless Woman]