II.
3. Woman produces less than man industrially, you say. Admitting this to be true, do you count as nothing the great maternal function—the risks that woman runs in accomplishing it;
Do you count as nothing the labors of the household, the cares that are lavished upon you, and to which you owe cleanliness and health?
If the quantity of the product be the origin of the equality of right, why have those who produce little, those who produce nothing, and all of you who produce unequally, equal right?
Why are all those women who produce, while their husbands and sons enjoy and dissipate, destitute of the rights which the latter possess?
You do not admit the question of product into that of right when man is in question, why then do you admit it when woman is in question?
You see that this is inconsiderate, irrational, unjust.
4. Woman cannot be the equal of man, because her peculiar temperament interdicts to her certain functions.
Well, then a legislator can, without being unreasonable, decree that all men who are unfitted by temperament for the profession of arms, for instance, are excluded from equality of right!