softer sex

And, as in the case made famous by Cowper, of the "softer sex" and the old-fashioned iron-cushioned arm-chairs, the old man had, as became his years, "'gan murmur."

From The Cruise of the Betsey or, A Summer Ramble Among the Fossiliferous Deposits of the Hebrides. With Rambles of a Geologist or, Ten Thousand Miles Over the Fossiliferous Deposits of Scotland by W. S. (William Samuel) Symonds

Warm-hearted friends watched and guarded him with intense and unwearied solicitude; the kindest hearted of the softer sex, the best of the best, seems to have been born only to anticipate his wants.

From Harper's New Monthly Magazine, Vol. 1. No 1, June 1850 by Various

It is worth observing, that Fatamah, the proper name of Mahomet's daughter, is here used, by excess of delicacy, to describe the softer sex, more especially ladies.

From Narrative of a Mission to Central Africa Performed in the Years 1850-51, Volume 1 Under the Orders and at the Expense of Her Majesty's Government by James Richardson

The instrumental performance was illustrated and completed with a multitude of harmonious voices, and those who sang were each of them of the softer sex.

From Imogen A Pastoral Romance by William Godwin

I resolved to follow that rule of polite society, which extends priority to the softer sex.

From The Wild Huntress Love in the Wilderness by Mayne Reid