Fidelity to conscience is inconsistent with retiring modesty. If it be so, let the modesty succumb. It can be only a false modesty which can be thus endangered.

Martineau began losing her sense of taste and smell becoming increasingly deaf at a young age and having to use an ear trumpet. London and the United States
Writing was considerably gendered in the Victorian era. She met Florence Nightingale and Charlotte Brontë later on in her literary career.

Martineau has said of her approach: "when one studies a society one must focus on all its aspects including key political religious and social institutions". She earned enough to be supported entirely by her writing a challenging feat for a woman in the Victorian era. " While Harriet Martineau was commonly described as having a masculine intellect Martineau introduced feminist sociological perspectives in her writing on otherwise overlooked issues such as marriage children domestic and religious life and race relations.