The old woman tells Candide: “Imagine my situation, the daughter of a pope, only fifteen years old, who in the space of three months had been exposed to poverty and slavery, had been raped almost daily, had seen her mother torn to pieces, had endured war and famine, and was now dying of the plague in Algiers” (p. 29). What does this passage, and others like it, suggest about the reality of women’s lives during the Age of Reason?

The lives of women were not equal to the life of men. When it came to equality during the Age of Reason women were pushed out of the picture. They were treated as sex slaves and they were beaten just because they were a bit weaker. With women being weaker all kinds of things would happen to them.  Just how the old woman was treated in Candide that’s how real women were acted upon. Woman didn't have a say so they just did what they were told. A feminist which is a person who believe in equality against both gender would argue that women deserve much better than what they got.