JOHN STUART MILL (1806-1873)

inglese

JOHN STUART MILL

John Stuart Mill is a Victorian philosopher and economist, and a member of the House of Commons that became an advocate of the cause of female emancipation.

Indeed, in 1866 he supported a petition in favour of 131d39b women's suffrage but when he died (in 1873) the question suffered a setback.

So, in his essay entitled The Subjection of Women (of the 1869), Mill confirms partially what Mary Wollstonecraft had already wrote, but in the Victoria period, a period when the question of women's education was often discussed.

Mill tries to convince men to change law and public opinion in order to free women from the tyranny of men and give them the status of human beings.

In order to do this, Mill aim to demonstrate that women are not inferior to men, therefore it ought to be a perfect equality between the two sexes instead of a legal subordination of women to men.

He talks about legal subordination because women accept voluntarily their condition since it's considered natural: but that's not at all!

Must be said, though, that Mill's claims about female emancipation and freedom of expression (through their writings) don't refer to the women of the working class, but only to those women who had the privilege to stay at home and take care of their family.

However, the subjection of women was only one aspect of the tyranny against which Mill fought because he fought also against those of the slaves employed in the colonies of Southern United States.

So, generally, Mill wanted men and women to be free from every kind of slavery/tyranny.