Read the excerpt below from “Female Orations" by Margaret Cavendish and answer the question that follows.
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 ou
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 ſendeavor 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.
This text was written in 17th-century England. How does this information regarding the text's historical context affect your
understanding of the text and its theme?