Which parts of the portrayal of women in "Flatland" are satire?

Question

I recently finished Flatland (full text link), and I found it generally a somewhat disconcerting read. I realize that it's satire, and it's written in the tone of satire, particularly when it comes to women - but some of the remarks that they make in writing are very off-putting.

I can conclude roughly one of three things:

1. It's actually satire and I'm misreading it under a modern lens with modern expectations,
2. or - It's poorly-executed satire,
3. or - This portrayal isn't satire at all, and it just seems like it could be because of a modern lens.

I have no idea which of these it is.

The book as written is absolutely satire - the author denotes it as this; it's intended to remark on late Victorian-era societal structure. However, parentheticals sometimes include remarks and comparisons that we're intended to accept and gloss over, which has the effect of implying they're simply true without challenging them in any way (end of chapter 3):

Thus, in the most brutal and formidable of the soldier class - creatures almost on a level with women in their lack of intelligence - it is found that, as they wax in the mental ability necessary to employ their tremendous penetrating power to advantage...

Certain things are absolutely satirical (from chapter 4):

...others oblige a Woman, when travelling, to be followed by one of her sons, or servants, or by her husband; others confine Women altogether to their houses except during the religious festivals. But it has been found by the wisest of our Circles or Statesmen that the multiplication of restrictions on Females tends not only to the debilitation and diminution of the race, but also to the increase of domestic murders to such an extent that a State loses more than it gains by a too prohibitive Code.

This is a setup that allows Abbot to draw attention to a poor Victorian standard... and then he challenges it in the worst possible way:

For whenever the temper of the Women is thus exasperated by confinement at home or hampering regulations abroad, they are apt to vent their spleen upon their husbands and children; and in the less temperate climates the whole male population of a village has been sometimes destroyed in one or two hours of simultaneous female outbreak.

These kinds of things, in addition to offhand references to "the Frail Sex" which go unchallenged, lead me to question whether, or which parts were intended as satire, and which parts were intended to remain unchallenged.

Is there any way to tell? How do we know?

Answer 1

This webpage, "Social Satire in Flatland," says that Abbott was a firm believer in women's rights, with the implication that it's all satire. Assuming that the narrator's parenthetical comments are actually the opinions of the author is a natural thing to do, but it is definitely not always the case. See this Literature.SE question.

In support of the statement that Abbott believed in women's rights, the webpage remarks:

Abbott was also a vocal leader in the Teachers' Training Syndicate, formed and primarily supported by the major female educators of Victorian England, who extensively praised Abbott for his efforts on behalf of education reform, in particular for proposing alternate ways of qualifying for entrance into university studies,

and

This was the first generation in which women were permitted to attend classes at Oxford and Cambridge, but their access was still quite limited. Although there were many schools where a boy could be trained for the demanding university entrance examinations, there were few comparable opportunities for girls, and many of the young women who gained entrance to universities, like Abbott's daughter, had received much of their education at home, often from private tutors. It was partially to aid in this effort that Abbott composed his Hints for Home Teaching, directed at parents who wished to help their children prepare for higher education.

One can see that this is indeed correct by looking at Hints for Home Teaching on the Internet Archive. The introduction says:

The increased educational opportunities now afforded to girls and women justify the belief that in the next generation mothers will take a large part in the teaching and training of the young, at all events in the middle classes ; and, even where parents have not the leisure or the desire to superintend in detail the studies of their children, they can go far to form in them those habits which constitute the foundation of their intellectual as well as their moral future, and can assist the day-school or the private tutor by an influence always most valuable, when wise.