Review of The Subjection of Women (1869)
John Stuart Mill (writer).
Read in 2025.
Sexism in the light of the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
I speculate that Mill was personally most interested in the relationship between the ancient “law of the strongest”, which had fallen out of fashion, and sexist British law. The analogy with slavery makes for a fruitful case study in the effects of personal liberty on society, hence liberalism. The study is good because, with obvious effort, Mill presents the topic of masculine versus feminine nature as an epistemological problem where the accidents of history prevent certain knowledge. By reasoning well from the available facts, Mill helped change that. More than 150 years of progress later, history has rewarded his good faith with countless further examples of free women improving the world.
The many good passages of this essay that elaborate on the lived experience of women are more similar to A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) and more likely to have been contributed by Mill’s wife and daughter, who are not credited.