We've definitely come a long way.

I just started reading East of Eden by John Steinbeck, and I'm already loving it. I came across this great little quote that should make any woman grateful to be living in THIS day, rather than back then.

"Cyrus wanted a woman to take care of Adam. He needed someone to keep house and cook, and a servant cost money. He was a vigorous man and needed the body of a woman, and that too cost money--unless you were married to it. Within two weeks Cyrus had wooed, wedded, bedded, and impregnated her. His neighbors did not find his action hasty. It was quite normal in that day for a man to use up three or four wives in a normal lifetime.

Alice Trask had a number of admirable qualities. She was a deep scrubber and a corner-cleaner in the house. She was not very pretty, so there was no need to watch her. Her eyes were pale, her complexion shallow, and her teeth crooked, but she was extremely healthy and never complained during her pregnancy. Whether she liked children or not no one ever knew. She was not asked, and she never said anything unless she was asked. From Cyrus's point of view this was possibly the greatest of her virtues. She never offered any opinion or statement, and when a man was talking she gave a vague impression of listening while she went about doing the housework."

Nothing like a woman that keeps her mouth shut and cleans, right? It's like in Little Women when Amy's teacher tells her that "It's as useful to educate a woman as it is to educate a female cat."

Thank the heavens for women like Mary Wollstonecraft, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul, Susan B. Anthony, etc. Or we'd still be scrubbing floors barefoot and pregnant with no useful thoughts in our heads except how to please our husbands.