Woman’s degradation is in man’s idea of his sexual rights. Our religion, laws, customs, are all founded on the belief that woman was made for man. Come what will, my whole soul rejoices in the truth that I have uttered.

Stanton links women’s social subordination to a deeper, often unspoken premise: that men possess inherent sexual entitlement. By naming “religion, laws, customs” as built on the belief that woman exists for man, she frames women’s oppression as structural and ideological rather than merely a matter of individual cruelty. The closing declaration—her soul “rejoices” in having spoken the truth—signals a defiant willingness to bear backlash for articulating a taboo critique of marriage, sexuality, and patriarchal authority. The quote thus exemplifies Stanton’s radical strain of nineteenth‑century feminism, which challenged not only political exclusion but also the intimate power relations that sustained it.