Ladies, gentlewomen, and other inferior women, but not less worthy, I have been industrious to assemble you together, and wish I were so fortunate, as to [persuade] you to make [frequent assembly], association, and combination amongst our sex, that we may unite in prudent counsels, to make ourselves as free, happy, and famous as men, whereas now we live and [die], as if we were produced from beasts, rather than from men; for men are happy, and we women are miserable, they possess all the ease, rest, pleasure, wealth, power, and fame, whereas women are restless with labour, easeless with pain, melancholy for want of pleasures, helpless for want of power, and [die] in oblivion, for want of fame; nevertheless, men are so unconscionable and cruel against us that they [endeavor to bar] us of all kinds of liberty, as not to suffer us freely to associate amongst our own sex, but would fain bury us in their houses or beds, as in a grave; the truth is, we live like bats or owls, labour like beasts, and die like worms.
Source: Cavendish, Margaret. “Female Orations.” 1662. Paper Bodies: A Margaret Cavendish Reader. Ed. Sylvia Bowerbank and Sara Mendelson. Ontario: Broadview Press, 2000. 143. Google Books. Web. 24 June 2011
Which excerpt expresses the author’s attitude about gender roles in her society best
“I were so fortunate, as to [persuade] you to make [frequent assembly] . . . .”
“[T]he truth is, we live like bats or owls, labour like beasts, and die like worms.”
“Ladies, gentlewomen, and other inferior women, but not less worthy . . .”
“I have been industrious to assemble you together . . . .”
