The Subjection Of Women

The Subjection of Women, which Mill wrote in 1861 but did not publish
until 1869, is one of the seminal texts of feminism and aroused more
antagonism than anything Mill ever wrote. Conservatives predicted it
would do to the English family what socialism would do to England's
economy. Liberals believed that women would vote conservative. Many
prominent Englishwomen, such as Charlotte Bront???, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning, Christina Rossetti, and George Eliot, opposed women's
suffrage. Even such advanced thinkers as Sigmund Freud were hostile to
the book.In The Subjection of Women Mill argues with lucidity, force and
more than usual metaphorical eloquence that "the principle which
regulates the existing social relations between the two sexes-the legal
subordination of one sex to the other-is wrong in itself, and now one of
the chief hindrances to human improvement; and that it ought to be
replaced by a principle of perfect equality..." Mill does battle on two
fronts, that of intrinsic justice and that of utility. He sees the
subjection of women as not only inherently wrong, but intertwined with
all the evils of existing society. In support of his central principle,
Mill argues that there is no basis in nature for the inferior status of
women. He likens the position of the Victorian wife to that of a
domestic slave and discourses on the debasing nature of all master-slave
relations. He provides historical evidence of what women are capable of
achieving and he speculates upon the benefits that will accrue to
society as well as individuals from female emancipation, most especially
from equality in marriage, which Mill describes as the only remaining
legal form of slavery.This new critical edition shows that Mill's
classic work has lost none of its relevance. The cross-disciplinary
approach of the book can be useful in literature, history, or sociology
courses as well as womens studies