“Ah! why do women condescend to receive a degree of attention and respect from strangers different from that reciprocation of civility which the dictates of humanity and the politeness of civilization authorize between man and man? And why do they not discover, when, "in the noon of beauty's power", that they are treated like queens only to be deluded by hollow respect. Confined, then, in cages like the feathered race, they have nothing to do but to plume themselves, and stalk with mock majesty from perch to perch.”

— Mary Wollstonecraft , book A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Source: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792), Ch. 4

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Mary Wollstonecraft 44

British writer and philosopher 1759–1797

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Mary Wollstonecraft 44

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