The Subjection of Women
John Stuart Mill 1869
This essay argues for women's equality in marriage, education, and public life. Mill questions how anyone can know women's abilities when laws and customs restrict their choices.
147 pages 2h 52m reading time
- One of the founding works of modern feminism, and among the first books by a leading male thinker to argue for equal rights for women.
- Compares the legal position of a married woman in Mill's time to slavery, since the law gave her husband control over her property, her children, and her body.
- Argues that treating women as unequal harms everyone, because society wastes the talents of half its people and men learn to rule at home instead of living as equals.
- It quickly spread to readers in many countries and became a key text for the women's suffrage movements that later won women the right to vote.
- Its case for equality in marriage and in law helped shape later debates and reforms on women's property rights, divorce, and access to education.
Kept in a drawer
Mill finished it in 1861 but waited eight years to publish, until the time seemed right.
Shaped by two women
Mill said his late wife Harriet Taylor Mill and her daughter Helen Taylor shaped many of its ideas.
Followed a failed vote
In 1867, as a member of Parliament, Mill had asked fellow lawmakers to give women the vote, and they refused.
Attacked by critics
Many British reviewers attacked it when it appeared, calling its views on marriage and women dangerous or absurd.