IX. Views on Women (Based upon his work, The Subjection of Women)
A. Basic Position
“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, admitting no power or privilege on the one side, nor disability on the other.” Questions about the natural abilities and inclinations of women should be settled in free and open competition, once the present advantages enjoyed by men have been removed. Most of the usual claims about women, used to justify their lower status, such as their willingness to be submissive, their voluntary desire to be just wives and mothers, their mental inferiority are speculative claims rather than established truths. Even if true now, the claims are unreliable because of the artificial social circumstances (generally set up to the advantage of men) that often govern and control women’s attitudes. Many women do not accept this voluntary subjection, as growing evidence in different places shows. Natural and social circumstances, such as the woman’s near total dependence upon a man in marriage, hinder women’s rebellion against the power of men.
B. Historical Situation
The power of men over women is a historical remnant of the rule of force as the primary principle of social life. The pattern of fixed social hierarchies characteristic of the past, for example with respect to states and slavery, gives way to freedom, mobility, and equality as human progress continues (and the same should happen with respect women).
C. Dispelling Misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: Establishing the rights of women is unnecessary because they are able to exert their power in other ways. The response to this misunderstanding lies in Mill’s assertion that power is not adequate compensation for loss of freedom or for the denial on warranted rights. In addition, women should not have to resort to other means than merely asserting their rights. Further, even if women possess respect and dignity due to the good will of most men and due to the often favorable relations within a marriage, this situation does not always occur and laws need to be set up not to protect us from the majority of people of good will but rather from the minority who would do us harm.
Misunderstanding: Women lack the originality to produce great scientific or artistic works. Mill’s response to this misunderstanding lies in his assertion that the social circumstances of women have not provided them with the opportunities to dedicate their lives to a profession in the ways that have been open to men.
D. Advantages to Human Beings generally likely to follow from the liberation of women.
There are essentially three of the advantages. First, the liberation of women will result in greater social justice according to Mill. Further, such liberation will have the consequence of “doubling the mass of mental faculties available for the higher service of humanity.” Finally, the outcome of such liberation will be the enhancement of the moral influence of women.
E. Miscellaneous
It is strange that a country can deny women the right to vote on the grounds that they are incapable of meeting political duties when the whole country was ruled by women (such as Queen Elizabeth I). Although nothing should prevent women from developing their abilities in a profession while in a marriage, it is desirable that women not have to support a family financially, since their commitment to a marriage involves considerable commitment to the management of a household and to raising a family. Society’s cultivating a tendency in boys to think of themselves as naturally, or inherently, superior to girls perverts the whole manner of existence of the man, both as an individual and as a social being. Society’s cultivating devotion to self-sacrifice in a woman exacts from her an unremitting restraint of the whole of her natural inclinations and the sole return it makes to her for what often deserves the name of a martyrdom is consideration from her husband and other family members.
