The Cultured Girl

When you go with a young man to the theatre, who pays the bills? He does. I ask you “Why?” “Oh, indeed,” you will reply, “it is the custom.” True, but don’t you think it a queer custom that makes one party shoulder all the expense? What is the basis of the custom? Why, the old-time belief that woman doesn’t know enough to earn money for herself. That doesn’t sound very agreeable to your twentieth century ears, does it, little woman? Girls are often thoughtless regarding the money that excursions and pleasures cost young men. Nothing but bearing half the financial burden will make them realize just what the burden is.

From Health-Beauty-Sexuality: From Girlhood to Womanhood, 1905