How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[…] Florence was a girl, and would by and by be married, and have children of her own, and all the duties of a woman; and this being so, her life in the cabin was the best possible preparation for her future life. But Gabriel was a man; he would go out one day into the world to do a man's work, and he needed, therefore, meat, when there was any in the house, and clothes, whenever clothes could be bought, and the strong indulgence of his womenfolk […]. (2.1.24)
Florence and Gabriel are siblings, but that's about all they have in common. As soon as Gabriel is born, all of Florence's wishes and dreams are erased, all because she's a girl and he's a boy. Their mother sees her job as preparing them for the future, and so they have to get used to the idea early that men are privileged in society.
Quote #2
In their eyes lived perpetually a lewd, uneasy wonder concerning the night that she had been taken in the fields. That night had robbed her of the right to be considered a woman. (2.1.25)
Deborah was raped by a group of white men when she was a teenager, and this experience basically takes away her gender. She doesn't have "the right to be considered a woman" in the sense that no one considers her as an option for sex or marriage. It's like she's not a girl anymore, because her innocence has been taken away, but she's not a woman either; she's trapped in that traumatic moment.
Quote #3
Again, there was her legend, her history, which would have been enough, even had she not been so wholly unattractive, to put her forever beyond the gates of any honorable man's desire. (2.2.19)
In this quote, we see it isn't just Deborah's past that takes her out of the man/woman equation. She is "so wholly unattractive," which tells us that one of a woman's principle objectives in life should be to attract men. Because Deborah doesn't do that, she can't be an "honorable man's" partner.