The conclusion she derived from her childhood recollection is as follows:
“I think that my mother’s natural and acquired traits tend to prove that there is in mind no
distinction of sex, and that much that passes for natural talent is mainly the result of culture. For
my father had the passionate love of children which makes it a pleasure to nurse and tend them,
and which is generally deemed a distinctive element of the woman. But my mother, though
eminently benevolent, tender, and sympathizing, had very little of it.”9