Can you offer your thoughts on this Florence Nightingale quote?

Question

"Women have no sympathy... And my experience of women is almost as large as Europe. And it is so intimate too. Women crave for being loved, not for loving. They scream at you for sympathy all day long, they are incapable of giving you any in return for they cannot remember your affairs long enough to do so."

Answer 1

I think Nightingale sound's very angry!  

However, I do not agree with what she has to say at all.  It sounds like she is talking quite specifically despite the europe simile.

Obviously not all women are like this, but of course some are.  As are some men.

Answer 2

Florence was a product of an oppressive patriarchal environment.  

"I have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is; I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat."

--Rebecca West, 1913.  

Answer 3

She indicates her experience with women is intimate.  She seems to be indicating that she can not receive what she needs from a woman in a relationship.  She seems conflicted.  She is attracted to women, but they do not fulfill her needs.

Answer 4

I can see why my ancestor fell in love with her.