As one might expect, the tone of much of the discussion aroused by the book has been marked more by partisan enthusiasm than detached scholarship, a situation which its passionately and self-consciously radical author would have welcomed. Mill stands up against the 'universal' opinion of his day and tackles the arguments against gender equality one by one. Women by law (excepting Royalty), were not allowed to contribute to the running of the state.

Throughout the last hundred years it has continued to be one of the most widely quoted – and widely attacked – books on the subject, and no less than three new editions of it have appeared in the last ten years as part of the general boom in feminist publishing both in Britain and America. There were rules as to when, what time of day and with whom Women could be seen. From its publication in 1869, John Stuart Mill's The Subjection of Women enjoyed an immediate and lasting success: it was reprinted twice within the first six months, two further editions appearing in the United States in the same period, and it was almost immediately translated into French, German, Danish, Italian, Polish, and Russian. 'Whatever women's services are most wanted for,' he writes, 'the free play of competition will hold out the strongest inducements to them to undertake.'īut despite Mill's admission that On the Subjection of Women was co-written with his wife, Harriet, this otherwise commendable edition again omits her name from the cover.It is surely a striking fact, though some may also find it an awkward fact, that the most celebrated and influential statement of the case for feminism in nineteenth-century Britain was written by a man. The Subjection of Women is notable for situating John Stuart Mill at the forefront of the developing. If, as opponents of female emancipation argue, women are not naturally inclined to be political animals, they have nothing to lose by freeing them from legal shackles because nature will dictate what they are capable of becoming. The Subjection of Women was published by in 1869. Mill argues that more people existing alongside one another on an equal footing means increased competition, with an advantageous effect on human moral and intellectual development, both individual and social. He goes on to explain the benefits of female emancipation from the utilitarian standpoint. He states that the opposition to female emancipation is thus driven by prejudice rather than rationality. Mill's contention is that we cannot know that something will not work unless we try it.

The subjugation of women 1869