John Stuart Mill- Second

John Stuart Mill

John Stuart Mill would have approved of how the roles of women have changed since he wrote The Subjection of Women. Mill was more a reformist, rather than a revolutionary, and the roles of women in developed countries have changed dramatically since his time, but the changes have been slow to come. Mill’s approval would also be hinged on society’s continual progression. Society has changed since Mill’s lifetime in a number of ways. A few examples: women have the right to vote; marriage is not longer obligatory; and women can work in nearly any field that they wish.
Mill tried to use The Subjection of Women to open the people’s eyes to the plight of one half of the population. He was not hopeless that the situation of women could change, as he is writing for reform rather than a revolution for women’s situation. He believed that progress was of the utmost importance to society, and the women’s movement. He states that his opinion on the standing of women has “been constantly growing stronger by the progress of reflection and the experience of life…” Mill reasons here that there is hope for the progress of women’s rights. Mill took the radical point of view when he stated that women do not enter marriage voluntarily. He shed light on the fact that many women had started writing about their predicament, and that they had started asking for changes, particularly suffrage. He mentions women’s movements not just in England, but also the United States, the US movement that he writes about is for education equality for males and females. Mill sees that there is progress being made and he applauds it. He desires more progress but he realizes that more changes will require a change in attitude and education for the public; people did not have basic understandings of physiological or psychological differences between men and women.
Mill would have approved of how far society has come in its knowledge of women and their unique physiological and psychological differences from men. The changes from Victorian England are stark, but in the 139 years since Mill wrote The Subjection of Women there have been opportunities for more advancement. It was nearly 50 years after Mill started his involvement in the struggle for women’s rights in England before women got conditional rights to vote. Ten years later voting rights were expanded to the same as males’. In the United States women got voting rights in 1920. After women got the vote attitudes towards women slowly adapted and changed to where they are now. Mill would applaud the slow progress and gradual changes because it is easier that way for people to adapt. He would see that progress is still occurring and be content with just continuing forward.

Works Cited:
Klingman, Marcie. “The Effect of Militancy In the British Suffragette Movement.” Welsh Communists.1996. 27 April 2008. < http://welshcommunists.co.uk/suff.htm >.

Wooton, David. Modern Political Thought: Readings from Machiavelli to Nietzsche. (Indianapolis/Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, Inc., 1996).