Marriage, to women as to men, must be a luxury, not a necessity; an incident of life, not all of it. And the only possible way to accomplish this great change is to accord to women equal power in the making, shaping and controlling of the circumstances of life.

The quotation argues that marriage should be freely chosen rather than compelled by economic dependence or social coercion. By calling marriage a “luxury” and an “incident,” Anthony frames it as one possible element of a full life, not a woman’s defining purpose. The proposed remedy—women’s “equal power” to shape life’s circumstances—points to structural equality: political rights, access to education and paid work, and legal autonomy. In this view, only when women can control the material and civic conditions of their lives can intimate relationships be entered on equal terms, transforming marriage from a survival strategy into a partnership grounded in choice.