Thomas Wentworth Higginson, Women and Men

In short, the repressing influence has not consisted in this or that trivial disadvantage, but in the Oriental theory itself. If women have less natural gift than men, they need more encouragement and not more hinderance; if a young man of puny appearance comes into a gymnasium, he is not invited to exercise with his hands tied. At all events, for what work a woman does she is entitled to credit, and not to have the shadow of the harem invoked to hush up her existence as much as possible, letting the credit go to some one else. I know a lady who, when a child, was once coaxed by her elder brothers to climb through the sliding-door of the pantry, which she alone was small enough to enter, and to bring them out an apronful of apples. The elder accomplices then carried them off into the orchard and devoured them without leaving her a single one. If art and authorship in women be crimes, like stealing apples, men have certainly adjusted the rewards and penalties somewhat in this way.