Laws and customs may be creative of vice; and should be therefore perpetually under process of observation and correction: but laws and customs cannot be creative of virtue: they may encourage and help to preserve it; but they cannot originate it.

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.