The Subjection of Women

Although it is less important than the other questions discussed in the book thus far, it is worth discussing the question of how human society as a whole would be transformed by women’s emancipation. Firstly, there is no doubt that enhancing women’s rights would ease the suffering of a large number of individual women mistreated by their husbands. As a social institution that gives men unchecked power over women, marriage is an outdated, unjust institution that should be left in the past, like slavery. Yet for some people, hearing about the negative sides of women’s oppression is not enough—they also need to be explicitly persuaded that women’s emancipation would create a better society.

Far from being a minor issue, gender is the most common and widespread relation between two sets of people in the world. In that light, Mill claims that all the selfishness that exists in human society has its roots in gendered oppression. Consider the effect when a boy meets a woman who is much smarter and more capable than him, only to learn that he still has absolute authority over her. Situations like this have a profoundly corrupting influence on humanity and encourage men to become arrogant and domineering.

Indeed, it is difficult to even imagine how serious the impact has been of having such an unjust system in place for so long. As long as this system is in place, it will be an “uphill struggle” for men to embrace principles of justice (which are the principles of Christianity). Not only this, but women’s emancipation would also mean the doubling of skill and knowledge available to put in service of the greater good. At the moment, women’s capabilities are almost wasted on domestic labor alone. If gender inequality were to end, the overall intellectual capacity of humanity would be enhanced. Women’s abilities would automatically be strengthened simply because they’d would be allowed to pursue whatever interested them.

Throughout history, women have had a strong influence on the workings of the world, in part via their roles as mothers of sons. They have significantly helped the spread of Christianity. The desire to impress and honor women was the foundation of chivalry, a practice that Mill describes as one of the pinnacles of morality in human. In today’s world, the moral code via which people make decisions ought to be based on justice and respect for the rights of each individual person. A system of punishment is in place to deter people from committing wrongs.

Women still exert a significant influence on the moral system of the present—yet because they still have little knowledge of the world beyond the domestic sphere, they can sometimes regrettably discourage that which is publicly accepted. On the other hand, there are still some positive aspects to women’s influence on public life. They encourage pacifism and charitable giving, both of which represent what is morally distinguished about modern European life. At the same time, women’s interest in these causes betrays the limitations of their education, which is based in sentimentality rather than real knowledge. This can have the effect of encouraging benevolence that’s shallow and empty.

Clearly, women cannot be blamed for these deficiencies, which are provoked by restricted access to education and public life. Indeed, this becomes yet another example of the way in which women’s emancipation would be of enormous public benefit. People often say that men of the “classes most exposed to temptation” need their wives to keep them in check. Mill observes that there is probably some truth in this, although it works very differently among the upper classes. Among these people, wives work to ensure that their husbands conform to the general opinion of acceptable behavior. Especially if a wife isn’t as intelligent as her husband, he is likely to feel dragged down by her, as she will stop him from living as he wants to.

This can be a special problem for those ranked just below the most elite circles of society. Many women convince themselves that they could certainly move into this elite level (usually erroneously, Mill thinks) if it weren’t for their husbands’ “low radical politics.” This is one of the issues that arises when two very different people end up being married. While it’s not true that all the differences that emerge between married people are due to the differences in how men and women are raised, this stark gap makes it unlikely that a married couple will find themselves truly agreeing about their preferences and desires. The issue can be resolved by women being totally submissive, but this isn’t really a solution at all.

If women were not oppressed, marriage might more often resemble friendships between people of the same sex, where two people do not agree on everything but nonetheless find that their different natures complimentary and enriching. Overall, difference between two people can be valuable unless one person is intellectually inferior to the other. Even the most intelligent and capable people will lose their insight if they only spend time around people who are their intellectual inferiors.

Marriage is currently changing, thanks to shifting norms such as men participating more in domestic life and women receiving more comprehensive education. At the same time, a problem persists of women holding their husbands’ advancement back. Mill states that he will not describe what a marriage between true intellectual equals is like, because those who can’t already picture it will not be able to believe it could happen. However, this is the ideal state of marriage and must be the goal that people work toward if humanity is to properly flourish.

The most important benefit of women’s emancipation, however, is the happiness it would bring to women themselves. After the basic necessities of survival, freedom is the most important thing for human beings to have. No one would willingly give up their freedom even if meant submitting to the rule of a leader who was competent and fair. All men must remember the feeling of relief and happiness that came when their childhoods ended and they gained autonomy over their old lives—there can be no doubt that women crave the same experience. The desire to have power over others is always going to be conflict with the importance of individual freedom. 

It is not just that freedom brings happiness and fulfilment, but also that lacking freedom to pursue one’s own wishes creates enormous suffering. Think of the women who devote their entire lives to raising children only to have the children grow up and move away, leaving their mothers bereft of their only “social duty.” When people ridicule the idea of women holding political office, they usually suppose that it would be teenagers and young women sitting in Parliament, when it’s not common for political office to be held by adolescent men. It is much more reasonable to imagine older women of 40 or 50—who have gained important life experience by raising families—taking political office.

At the moment, society condemns women to a tedious and miserable life, denying them the satisfaction of pursuing something that they find meaningful. This waste of potential is inflicted by law, a situation that amounts to evil and that insults everything that makes human life worth living.