The Subjection of Women is an essay by John Stuart Mill, published in 1869. Mill argues that the legal subordination of women to men is wrong and a hindrance to human progress, and calls for equality without privilege or disability. Its clear reasoning makes it a landmark of feminist thought.
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Text source: gutenberg.org · The work is in the public domain.
Opening of the book
THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN BY JOHN STUART MILL LONDON LONGMANS, GREEN, READER, AND DYER 1869 LONDON: SAVILL, EDWARDS AND CO., PRINTERS, CHANDOS STREET, COVENT GARDEN. CHAPTER I. The object of this Essay is to explain as clearly as I am able, the grounds of an opinion which I have held from the very earliest period when I had formed any opinions at all on social or political matters, and which, instead of being weakened or modified, has been constantly growing stronger by the progress of reflection and the experience of life: 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. The very words necessary to express the task I have undertaken, show how arduous it is. But it would be a mistake to suppose that the difficulty of the case must
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