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John Stuart MillThe Subjection of Women
Nonfiction | Essay / Speech | Adult | Published in 1869A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Key Figures
John Stuart Mill
John Stuart Mill was born in 1806 in a suburb outside of London to a religious family. His father’s friendship with Jeremy Bentham, considered a founder of utilitarianism, would profoundly shape Mill’s own philosophical views. His father was also extremely strict and, according to Mill, deprived him of a childhood, likely contributing to Mill’s belief in freedom and personal liberty. Witnessing the oppression of women and the lower classes further fueled his commitment to social activism. As a teenager, he was arrested and charged with obscenity after writing a pamphlet advocating for birth control amongst the working-class neighborhoods of London.
Through Bentham, Mill met Harriet Taylor, who substantially advanced his ideas on gender equality. The two fell in love and married in 1851, two years after Taylor’s first husband died. Harriet was instrumental in helping Mill develop the ideas presented in The Subjection of Women, and she edited original drafts prior to publication.
Throughout his career, Mill sought not only to promote his ethical theories but also to reconcile the divide between reason and emotion and theory with experience. While Mill is best known for his philosophical ideas and political activism, he was also an economist and member of Parliament. In these roles, he consistently fought for the rights of the poor, arguing that a truly moral society would ensure that the less fortunate did not suffer as much as England’s impoverished did.
Mill died in 1873 of a bacterial infection and was laid to rest next to his wife.
Harriet Taylor Mill (née Hardy)
Harriet Taylor Mill was born in 1807 to author Thomas Hardy and his wife Harriet Hurst. She was a British philosopher who advocated for women’s economic, political, and social rights. She married pharmacist John Taylor when she was 18, and they had three children. Hill met John Stuart Mill when she was 22. The two quickly formed a friendship based on their shared passions for social justice and women’s rights. Due to the restrictions on divorce during this era, Harriet and John Taylor did not divorce. He died in 1849, and she married John Stuart Mill in 1851.
Although Mill believed in gender equality prior to meeting Taylor, she advanced his thinking, particularly on the issues of women’s employment and equality within marriage. She wrote “The Enfranchisement of Women” 18 years before The Subjection of Women, but it goes further than Mill’s essay in arguing for women’s right to work outside of the home to gain economic independence:
Mill agrees that married women must be able to support themselves, but he explicitly rejects the idea that they should always do so, because that would lead to neglect of the household and children. Taylor, however, recognizes the importance to women of continuous economic independence both within marriage and in case of its disintegration (Gordon, Lynn, and David Louzecky. “John Stuart Mill & Harriet Taylor Mill on Equality in Marriage & Family.” Philosophy Now, 2023).
Taylor did not receive credit for the contributions she made to Mill’s writing and was often mocked by her contemporaries, making her and Mill’s work all the more significant.
While traveling, both Taylor and Mill contracted tuberculosis, but she did not recover and died in 1858.
Related Titles
By John Stuart Mill
