The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

by Anne Brontë

‘Granted;—but would you use the same argument with regard to a girl?’ ‘Certainly not.’ ‘No; you would have her to be tenderly and delicately nurtured, like a hot-house plant—taught to cling to others for direction and support, and guarded, as much as possible, from the very knowledge of evil. But will you be so good as to inform me why you make this distinction? Is it that you think she has no virtue?’

You would have us encourage our sons to prove all things by their own experience, while our daughters must not even profit by the experience of others.