The education of women should always be relative to that of men. To please, to be useful to us, to make us love and esteem them, to educate us when young, to take care of us when grown up, to advise, to console us, to render our lives easy and agreeable… Even if she possessed real abilities, it would only debase her to display them.

J.J. Rousseau, Emile, 1762

Since women are deficient in reason but abundant in emotion, they ought no longer to be treated as rational, nor receive any mental education… Among women, we use language implying the utmost deference for their sex; and they fully believe that the Chief Circle Himself is not more devoutly adored by us than they are; but behind their backs they are both regarded and spoken of -- as being little better than “mindless organisms”.

Edwin A. Abbott, Flatland, 1884

Men have broad shoulders and narrow hips and accordingly they possess intelligences. Women ought to stay at home; the way they were created indicates this, for they have broad hips and wide fundament to sit upon.

Martin Luther, Table Talk, 1569

The sight of the female form tells us that woman is not destined for great work, either intellectual or physical. (Woman is) a kind of intermediate step between the child and them man, who is a human being in the real sense… Women exist solely for the propagation of the race.

Schopenhauer, “On Women”, 1851

Woman has “come down from the trees” more slowly than man has.

Theo Lang, The Difference Between a Man and a Woman, 1971

The female’s chromosomes, hormones and physical structure make it natural for her to respond, to follow and to submit.

Richard W. DeHann, Male, Female, and Unisex, 1977

The woman is naturally made for two things: household and domestic tasks and the exercise of pure love and devotion… On the contrary, man has compartments, sectors, and pigeon holes in his mind; he likes things to be separate and each in its order. And, although there are sublime exceptions, he is geared for mathematics.

Jean Guitton, Feminine Fulfillment