Mary Wollstonecraft, answered from the texts and cited to the page.
I honour marriage as the foundation of almost every social virtue.1 The woman who keeps faith with the father of her children demands respect, and nature, I grant, never intended a man to have more than one wife.1 What I attack is the institution as the laws and manners of this country have made it. The root of the evil is that girls are educated in idleness, taught to look up to a man for maintenance and to count their persons the proper return for his exertions.2
A being so formed enters marriage as a bargain, and marriage so entered corrupts both parties. The obedience required of the wife weakens a mind already enfeebled by dependence on authority, and the obedient wife is thus rendered a weak, indolent mother.3 Even the husband gains little: he who lords it in his little harem thinks only of his own pleasure or convenience, and some worn-out libertines marry for a safe companion and then seduce their own wives, so that Hymen banishes modesty and chaste love takes its flight.3
In the fashionable world the case is worse still. Women of fashion take husbands that they may have it in their power to coquet with a train of admirers, while children are neglected for lovers, and we express surprise that adulteries are so common.4 But affection in the marriage state can only be founded on respect, and I ask whether such weak beings, trained to please and nothing else, are respectable.4
The true bond is friendship. Children will never be properly educated till friendship subsists between parents, and virtue flies from a house divided against itself.5 Husband and wife cannot love purely when they have few sentiments in common and so little confidence at home, their pursuits being wholly different.5 I hold that a revolution in female manners would do more to improve mankind than almost any other change, since marriage is the parent of those endearing charities which draw man from the brutal herd, and the corrupting intercourse between the sexes does more harm to morality than all other vices together.5
Educate women as rational creatures and marriage becomes a partnership of equals. Leave them as they are and it remains a sale of the person for a maintenance.
The woman who is faithful to the father of her children demands respect, and should not be treated like a prostitute; though I readily grant, that if it be necessary for a man and woman to live together in order to bring up their offspring, nature never intended that a man should have more than one wife.A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
women are educated, who are always taught to look up to man for a maintenance, and to consider their persons as the proper return for his exertions to support them.A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
The obedience required of women in the marriage state, comes under this description; the mind, naturally weakened by depending on authority, never exerts its own powers, and the obedient wife is thus rendered a weak indolent mother.A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
women of fashion take husbands that they may have it in their power to coquet, the grand business of genteel life, with a number of admirers... Affection in the marriage state can only be founded on respect—and are these weak beings respectable?A Vindication of the Rights of Men
children will never be properly educated till friendship subsists between parents. Virtue flies from a house divided against itself--and a whole legion of devils take up their residence there.A Vindication of the Rights of Woman