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Being a woman, I was naturally interested in them, and could see some things more clearly than men could. I saw their real power, their real dignity, their real responsibility in the world...
Then I thought of all the other women, the real ones, the vast majority, patiently doing the work of servants without even a servant's pay - and neglecting the noblest duties of motherhood in favor of house service; the greatest power on earth, blind, chained, untaught, in a treadmill. I thought of what they might do, compared to what they did do, and my heart swelled with something that was far from anger.
From When I was a Witch, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, 1910
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