How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Dismissing then those pretty feminine phrases, which the men condescendingly use to soften our slavish dependence. (I.9)
Many young women love to be complimented by handsome young men. But many of them don't realize that even compliments can be enslaving, especially when you spend so much time looking for empty compliments that you forget just how poorly you're being treated in other ways.
Quote #2
Many are the causes that, in the present corrupt state of society, contribute to enslave women by cramping their understandings and sharpening their senses. (2.14)
Women are enslaved in many ways physically. But it's mental enslavement that oppresses them the most. By not having a good education, women remain ignorant of all the social forces that are constantly working against them.
Quote #3
Riches and hereditary honours have made cyphers of women to give consequence to the numerical figure; and idleness has produced a mixture of gallantry and despotism into society, which leads the very few men who are the slaves of their mistresses to tyrannize over their sisters, wives, and daughters. (2.21)
It's true that sometimes men are slaves to their mistresses because these women hold sexual power over them. But there is always a cost to this power, since these men are all the more likely to be unfair and mean to all the other women in their lives.