Comparing the moral expectations of women and men during this time is like comparing apples and oranges. The two are treated in entirely different manners, because the understanding of their ability to be moral is so different.

Women were commonly considered to be less able to resist sin, as was "proved" in the Garden of Eden. Men are frequently depicted as having to resist female wiles, which would lead them into temptation. This is the case in A Woman Killed with Kindness. Wendoll, a man that we could presume, on the basis of his friendship with Frankford, is essentially good, is pushed into adultery by the force of his attraction for Anne. Were Anne not in the picture, Wendoll would have remained a loyal companion to Frankford, but, as he says, "Some fury pricks me on; The swift Fates drag me at their chariot wheel/And hurry me to mischief," (Heywood, 6.99-101). He debates with himself for nearly a hundred lines before he confesses his love to her. Meanwhile, Anne is moved "to passion and to pity" in less than half the time (6.139). When they exit the stage together, it is to the words "Your husband is from home, your bed's no blab" (6.164). In the play, she is easily convinced to betray her husband and their marital vows. Because women are supposedly less able to resist sin, their presentation of charity and purity is different. Women, who cannot resist sin, refrain from food and drink as Anne does, to prove or make themselves pure.