JOHN STUART MILL AND THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN ARTHUR LAURENCE LAZENBY B

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JOHN STUART MILL AND THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN
by
ARTHUR LAURENCE LAZENBY
B. Comm., University of British Columbia, 1954
A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE
OF MASTER OF ARTS
in the Department
of
English
We accept this thesis as conforming to the
required standard
THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
August, 1968
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree
that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and
Study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this
thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the Head of my
Department or by hits representatives. It is understood that copying
or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed
without my written permission.
Department of
The University of British Columbia
Vancouver 8, Canada
Date ^ f fc 3 l<JCC
y
ABSTRACT
The Subjection of Women was the last book by John Stuart
Hill published during his lifetime. It presented a philosophical
analysis of the position of women in society, as unrecognised
individuals both in public and domestic roles. Mill exposed
the moral and ethical shortcomings' of a system which denied
women legal status or moral equality, and he made a number of
specific suggestions for reform, particularly respecting legal
and educational rights for women. During the following sixty
years in Britain, almost all of his suggested reforms were
achieved. Because. Mill' s specific pleas were answered, the
Subjection of Women has come to be regarded as an out-cf-date
argument for conditions which have been corrected. The moral
philosophy contained in the book received.little or no attention.
The knowledge of a present-day reader about John Stuart
Mill is based chiefly upon his Autobiography and the essay
On Liberty. The works which made Mill famous, his textbooks
upon logic and political economy, are now read only by students
of those fields. Readers of the Autobiography are not generally
aware how skillfully Mill and his wife edited that book to
remove most of the domestic circumstances of Mill's family, and
to construct a textbook account of his education. Since the
iv
tone of the Autobiography is austere and rational, there has
been a tendency to transfer these qualities to Mill himself.
In fact, Mill has misled his readers. In The Subjection of
Women, Mill reveals opinions about the social world and makes
comments about family life which are the natural complement
to his Autobiography.
Like most major figures of the Victorian period, John
Stuart Mill was a man df many abilities and interests—a
'generalise1, rather than a specialist—and any specialist
view of his work is apt to.be only a partial view of the man
and his work. Often these partial views become the whole view.
Even Mill's biographers have been unable to avoid this diffi
culty. Students of Mill's essays sometimes detect inconsistencies
in thought, others assert that Harriet Taylor, later Mrs. Mill,
dominated his later work. However, beyond the assumption that she
suggested the topic to Mill, there is very little examination of
the Subjection of Women and its ideas by modern critics or
biographers.
This study of the Subjection of Women argues for a line
of consistent and continuous development in John Stuart Mill,
and suggests that the book is'pertinent to his biography.
Various evidence in the thesis explains why it is not possible
to accept the currently published views of the man. Accordingly
Mill's family background and early training have been
rehearsed from the unfamiliar domestic viewpoint, and the
development of his ideas traced from his earliest writings
the production of The Subjection of Women.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
INTRODUCTION 1
I. Family 8
II. People 40
III. The Printed Word 66
IV. Harriet Taylor . . . . . . . .. 98
V. Joint Production . . . . . . .. 134
VI. The Subjection of Women. . . . 161
BIBLIOGRAPHY . 183
APPENDIX A: Biographical Extrapolation . 198
APPENDIX B: Logical Religion . . . . .. 206
APPENDIX C: Decency 209
PREFACE
Certain sources, because they are repeatedly mentioned,
are referred to by the following abbreviations:
Auto Autobiography by John Stuart Mill, Columbia University
Press edition of 1924.
D&D Dissertations and Discussions by John Stuart Mill,
3 vols..(London, I 8 6 7 ).
Draft The Early Draft of John Stuart Mill's "Autobiography,"
ed. Jack Stillinger (Urbana, 1961).
Elliot The Letters of John Stuart Mill, ed. Hugh S. R.
Elliot, 2 vols. (London, 1 9 1 0 ). Citations refer to
the page, e.g. (Elliot II, 3 0 6 ).
Hayek John Stuart Mill and Harriet Taylor: Their Friendship
and 'Subsequent Marriage by F. A. Hayek (London,
1951).
JM James Mill: A Biography by Alexander Bain (London,
1882).
JSM John Stuart Mill: A Criticism by illexander Bain
(London, 1 8 8 2 ).
Letters The Earlier Letters of John Stuart Mill, 1812-1848,
ed. Francis E. Mineka, 2 vols. (Toronto, 1963) .'
Citations are by letter number, e.g. (Letters, No. 28)
Packe The Life of John Stuart Mill by Michael St. John
Packe (London, 1 9 5 4 ).
PolEc Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill,
ed. J. M. Robson, 2 vols, (continuously paged]
(Toronto, 1 9 6 ? ).
Spirit Spirit of the Age by John Stuart Mill, ed. Frederick
A. von Hayek (Chicago, 1942).
Sub.j. The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill, ed.
Millicent Garrett Fawce.tt (Oxford University Press
edition with On Liberty and Representative Govern
ment: London^ 19o3o
JOHN STUART MILL AND
THE SUBJECTION OP WOMEN
"These great men originated the thought, that, like
every other part of the practice of l i f e, morals and
politics are an affair of science, to be understood
only after severe study and special training; an-
indispensable part of vrhich consists in acquiring
the habit of considering, not merely what can be said
in favour of a.doctrine, but what can be said against
i t ;, of sifting opinions, and never accepting any
until it has emerged victorious over every logical,
s t i ll more than over every practical objection."
John Stuart Mill on Plato and
Sokrates (D&D I I I, 284).
INTRODUCTION
John Stuart Mill's most widely read work today is his
essay On Liberty. The general impression of the man himself is
formed from a reading of his Autobiography. Mill's Logic and
Political Economy, like all good textbooks, have been absorbed
into our culture. In a sense this may also be said of his book
The Subjection of Women. In 1869 this work supplied just
that analysis of the problem which the Women's•Rights movements
of the time required. Mill's study of the woman question did
not report anything new: its achievement was analogous with
that of his previous textbooks—the collecting and ordering of
previously known material under an informing philosophical
view.
Mill regarded as his most significant and enduring work
the essay On Liberty—a judgment which time has vindicated,
though readers may not share the author's high opinion of the
contributions made to it by Harriet Taylor. It is possible to
regard it as the first of a trilogy of essays on power. Where
On Liberty and Considerations on Representative Government
examined the social and political power structure, the
Subjection of Women analysed the lessons of power in domestic
life, arguing the need for a complete and fundamental change
in the entire relation between men and women. This change
would be of greatest importance in its effect upon the family
environment. Mill called for a complete reform, as the only
way toward real progress:
But the true virtue of human beings is fitness to live
together as equals . . . the family is a school of despotism
. . . the family, justly constituted, would be the real
school of the virtues of freedom (Subj, 479).
Although Subjection of Women was the last book he published
In his lifetime, Mill asserted that the ideas in it had been a
part of his belief since his very earliest period, and that
his opinions had not been weakened or modified, but had constantly
grown stronger. This statement seems to contradict a number
of generally-held views about Mill's life and the development
of his thought. Moreover, the topic of equality appears to be
a contradiction of Mill's views as expressed in other works.
Most important, in his arguments in the Subjection, Mill gener
alises from his own experience, which he insists is typical;
there is often a strongly autobiographical tone in passages of
the book. The writer of the Subjection requires to be reconciled
with the writer of the Autobiography, and hence with the
accepted views about John Stuart Mill. It is the aim of this
thesis to show that the Subjection of Women is an important part