Marriage remained a union in which the wife was financially dependent on her husband. Women needed an economic provider while men did not, which put men at an advantage. The woman had to attract the man—not an easy accomplishment. In eighteenth-century England in particular, there was a disproportionate number of eligible women, allowing men to be very choosy when selecting a bride.6 The literature from then on (particularly when written by women) featured women competing with each other for male suitors. In eighteenth-, nineteenth-, and twentieth-century literature, the plot of a woman
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