Men Prosper, Women Suffer!

As we may have seen throughout the book, women during this time were severely discriminated. Every time that men would succeed fighting, women would be raped by soldiers. We can see this both lady Conegonde and her maid, the old woman that found Candide. In this time period, the most valuable virtue to a women was her virginity and this was usually taken by a her husband or a man she loved. Voltaire describes scenes in which women are raped and lose this virtue, which shows that at this time, women were completely vulnerable and unappreciated.

The old lady who is Lady Conegonde's servant was a princess and was then sold into slavery. This must not be interpreted literally because royalty did suffer greatly with Revolutions at this time, but surely did not end up being sold into slavery. This actually means that without this one virtue, and having it taken away in such a horrible manner, the old lady lost her honour, self- confidence, and pride completely. At some point, the old lady has just been raped and a man comes towards her and basically says to her that being a woman at that time was a disgrace, which is harsh but true. "O che sciagura d'essere senza coglioni."

Here Voltaire clearly criticizes society  because women were not respected and appreciated by many. Women in most countries did not gain their rights fully until the late 19th century and early 20th century. In fact, women in many countries are still severely discriminated. It astounds me to think that after all this time, women have still not fully gained the respect that they deserve.