Modern dating involves other people telling us how to think (self-loathingly), what to do (remove body hair) and when to have sex without shame (Tuesday).
Historically, women haven't had much choice in relationships. If your father didn't trade you for a cow, you applied for your withered maid license. When Papa died of Labours & Toils Disease, he left you a horsehair blanket and a large debt to the oppressive Lord Miseryshire. Your best hope was that this cruel noble would himself die, leaving his estate to a dashing son returned from the Indies to claim his due in heaving bosom.
For a woman to survive, she needed a sharp tongue and sharper wits to hide it. The fairer sex became master manipulators just to land a station in life where they weren't beaten for letting the spinning wheel overheat. A few won their freedom in bloody kickboxing battles, but didn't date much thereafter.
Jane Eyre is Clint Howard
Jane Eyre dared argue that ugly women could marry, if the man was useless to society.
By the Victorian era, women were considered too frail for anything hardier than gossiping, fainting or prostitution. Since giving birth would have exploded them into a shimmering red mist, women ordered their babies from the Pumblechook & Figg catalog.