“Tocqueville observed the pronounced differences in the legal standing of single and married women. When American women married, he noted, they seemed to retreat into submission, overwhelmed by the demands of running a household and bearing and rearing children. Tocqueville concluded that “a woman forfeits her independence forever when she embraces matrimony.” The idealization of the separate spheres of influence and activity defining men’s and women’s existence struck him as unique. But Tocqueville also felt that American women exhibited an intelligence and independence rarely found in European women.”
―
Sally G. McMillen,
Seneca Falls and the Origins of the Women's Rights Movement
