Quelques mots de George Eliot sur la question des femmes, qui montrent les limites de son féminisme :
“There is no subject on which I am more inclined to hold my peace and learn, than on the « Women Question ». It seems to me to overhang abysses, of which even prostitution is not the worst. Conclusions seem easy as we keep large blinkers and look in the direction of our own private path.
But on one point I have a strong conviction, and I feel bound to act on it, so far as my retired way of life allows of public action. And that is, that women ought to have the same fund of truth placed within their reach as men have…
I have been made rather miserable lately by revelations about women, and have resolved to remain silent in my sense of helplessness.”
Il s’en dégage une sorte de féminisme “élististe” (à la Françoise Giroud ?), qui peut ne pas être tout à fait exempt d’une certaine misogynie (cf, à nouveau, le traitement du personnage de Rosamond).