In these essays, Taylor and Mill discuss the ethical questions of marriage, separation and divorce. Taylor insists that what needs to be done to 'rais the condition of women' is 'to remove all interference with affection, or with anything which is, or which even might be supposed to be, demonstrative of affection'. She criticises the fact that 'women are educated for one single object, to gain their living by marrying'; that 'to be married is the object of their existence'; and 'that object being gained they do really cease to exist as to anything worth calling life or any useful purpose'. She also criticises the hypocrisy and unfairness of the fact that any girl who is seen as 'suitable' for marriage is – because only virgins are seen as suitable – by that very fact completely ignorant as to what marriage entails. She argues for rights to divorce, asking 'who would wish to have the person without the inclination?'.