Quote 25
HIGGINS. Very well, then, what on earth is all this fuss about? The girl doesn't belong to anybody—is no use to anybody but me. [He goes to Mrs. Pearce and begins coaxing]. You can adopt her, Mrs. Pearce: I'm sure a daughter would be a great amusement to you. Now don't make any more fuss. Take her downstairs; and— (2.119)
Higgins, in saying that Eliza doesn't "belong" to anyone, implies that a young woman should "belong" to someone; he also assumes that Mrs. Pearce, being a woman, would love to have a daughter to take care of.
Quote 26
HIGGINS [dogmatically, lifting himself on his hands to the level of the piano, and sitting on it with a bounce] Well, I haven't. I find that the moment I let a woman make friends with me, she becomes jealous, exacting, suspicious, and a damned nuisance. I find that the moment I let myself make friends with a woman, I become selfish and tyrannical. Women upset everything. When you let them into your life, you find that the woman is driving at one thing and you're driving at another […] Lord knows! I suppose the woman wants to live her own life; and the man wants to live his; and each tries to drag the other on to the wrong track. (2.161; 163)
Higgins is convinced that not only do women cause him trouble, but that they cause trouble in any and every case; he suggests that men and women are basically incompatible.
Quote 27
HIGGINS [a genial afterthought occurring to him] I daresay my mother could find some chap or other who would do very well—
LIZA. We were above that at the corner of Tottenham Court Road.
HIGGINS [waking up] What do you mean?
LIZA. I sold flowers. I didn't sell myself. Now you've made a lady of me I'm not fit to sell anything else. I wish you'd left me where you found me. (4.63-66)
Eliza tells Higgins two things: that she has no place in society anymore and that lower-class women have a stronger sense of morality than most "ladies." She and her fellow flower girls would never have sold themselves into marriage.