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I was just reading "The Woman Question" by Francis Parkman, and he nails a few points about the differences of the sexes. His understanding from 1879 could not have known the travesty that the welfare state would bring. To Francis, women were not equal to men for obvious reasons, but he over-emphasized the ideal that a woman could fulfill as under patriarchy.
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Francis is misguided and an idealist to women as evidenced by the following passage:
"They [women] can, if they will, create and maintain higher standards of thought and purpose, raise the whole tone of national life, and give our civilization the fullness that it lacks ; for, if they raise themselves, they will infallibly raise the men with them."
source: Parkman, Francis. “The Woman Question.” The North American Review, vol. 129, no. 275, 1879, pp. 303–21. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25100797.