John S. Mill

Chapter 1 from The Subjection of Women was thought to be extremely radical in Mill's time but is now seen as a profound statement of liberal feminism. This essay served as a critique of the restrictions on women political and civic rights.
John Stuart Mill proudly holds the distinction of being the first male philosopher who publicly argued in favor of women's rights.
The object of the essay was to show “...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.”(521)

Mill shows how the subordination bestowed upon the women stunted their moral and intellectual development of caused by restricting. This was done by pushing them into either self-sacrifice or selfishness and pettiness. Men, alternatively, became brutal through their relationships with women or tried to enslave their minds; "They have therefore put everything in practice to enslave their minds"(523). All the while, the men felt that by subjecting the women to this harsh behavior that they were benefiting themselves "All men, except the most brutish, desire to have, in the woman most nearly connected with them, not a forced slave but a willing one, not a slave merely, but a favourite" (523). They felt that this type of punishment was best for the women. Guess they thought this type of treatment would make the women eager to become submissive. They were wrong!

Mill’s concern for the status of women flamboyantly displays the rest of his thoughts. His support for women’s equality was exercised by associationism, which claims that minds are created by associative laws operating on experience. This implies that if we change the experiences and upbringing of women, then their minds will change. This can be performed by counteracting the ignorance bestowed by the men who said "Women who read, much more women who write, are, in the existing constitution of things, a contradiction and a disturbing element:and it is wrong to bring women up with any acquirements" (527).

Mill’s engaged with the world. His work is of enduring interest because it reflects how a fine mind struggled with and attempted to synthesize important intellectual and cultural movements even as a young child. Despite his rearing, being denied "both pleasures and playmates" and witnessing how his father dominated his mother(514)allows us to be very grateful for such a human being.