Dokument 
The subjection of women / by John Stuart Mill
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over, when people arc brought up, like many women of the higher classes (though less so in our ow n country than in any other) a kind of hot­house plants, shielded from the wholesome vicissi­tudes of air and temperature, and untrained in any of the occupations and exercises which give stimulus and development to the circulatory and muscular system, while their nervous system, especially in its emotional department, is kept in unnaturally active play; it is no w T onder if those of them who do not die of consumption, grow r up with constitutions liable to derangement from slight causes, both internal and external, and without stamina to support any task, physical or mental, requiring continuity of effort. But women brought up to w T ork for their liveli­hood show r none of these morbid characteristics, unless indeed they are chained to an excess of sedentary w r ork in confined and unhealthy rooms. Women who in their early years have shared in the healthful physical education and bodily free­dom of their brothers, and w 7 ho obtain a suffi­ciency of pure air and exercise in after-life, very rarely have any excessive susceptibility of nerves which can disqualify them for active pursuits. There is indeed a certain proportion of persons, in both sexes, in whom an unusual degree of nervous sensibility is constitutional, and of so marked a character as to be the feature of their