Delegate. I beg your pardon, the women would consent at once. It's you that prevent them, through the Union that you've started. Isn't that so?
Thérèse. That is so. But you know why.
Delegate. No, I do not know why.
Thérèse. Then I will tell you why. It is because the phrase only seems to be just and generous. You know very well that here, at any rate, the owner would not employ any more women if he had to pay them the same wages he pays the men. And if they struck, he'd replace them by men. Your apparent solicitude is only hypocrisy. In reality you want to get rid of the women.
Delegate. Well, I admit that. The women are not competitors; they're enemies. In every dispute they'll take the side of the masters.
Thérèse. How d'you know that?
Delegate. They've always done it, because women take orders by instinct. They're humble, and docile, and easily frightened.
Thérèse. Why don't you say inferiors, at once?
Delegate. Well, yes; inferiors, the majority of them.
Thérèse. If they're inferiors, it's only right that they should take lower wages.