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Open Philosophy LibraryThe Subjection of WomenJohn Stuart Mill

The Subjection of Women

By John Stuart Mill

In 'The Subjection of Women', John Stuart Mill argues that the legal and social subordination of women is unjust in itself and a serious obstacle to human progress. Examining marriage, education, employment, political participation and prevailing assumptions about women’s nature, he maintains that genuine knowledge of human capacities can emerge only under conditions of freedom and equality.

Publication
1869
Genre
Liberal political philosophy; social philosophy; feminist philosophy
Era
19th-Century Philosophy, Modern Philosophy

About this work

First published in 1869, The Subjection of Women is John Stuart Mill’s sustained philosophical argument against the legal, political and social inequality of the sexes. Mill challenges the assumption that male authority represents a natural or beneficial arrangement. Existing institutions, he argues, cannot prove women’s inferiority because those institutions have themselves restricted women’s education, choices and opportunities. What society calls feminine nature has developed under conditions of dependence and therefore cannot be treated as evidence of what women would freely become. Mill applies principles central to his wider philosophy—liberty, impartiality, individuality and human improvement—to relations between women and men. He examines the historical origins of male power, the unequal legal structure of marriage, the exclusion of women from occupations and public life, and the social training that encourages dependence and self-denial. Equality is presented not merely as a concession to women but as a requirement of justice and a benefit to society as a whole. The work also investigates a broader philosophical problem: how can established customs be evaluated when their long existence makes them appear natural? Mill argues that custom is not proof, power is not moral authority, and an arrangement never tested against a genuinely equal alternative cannot claim the support of experience. His case therefore concerns both women’s emancipation and the standards by which inherited institutions should be judged.

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