Theme of Inequality in The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill

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In the essay, The Subjection on Women, the author John Stuart Mill describes his views on the inequality between men and women. He gives his opinion on why men have so much power over women and why this occurs.

John Stuart Mill describes a principle and system that regulates the social relations between women and men. The principle Mill proposes is the legal subordination of one sex to the other. He is referring to the dominance that men have over women. In 1869, the Parliament in Europe gave little rights to women that created a tremendous gap between men and women. Men would be given the final say on what women could and could not do. The system that regulates the social relations between men and women was the system of inequality. Mill wrote that inequality was not forced on women, but was the way of life since the start of society. Mill argued that even though women voluntarily accepted male domination the majority of women were against it. The only way Mill said that women living in the mid-nineteenth century in Europe could get their opinions known was through written works. The main argument women were trying to make was to be as educated and given the same opportunities that men received. Women wanted to obtain jobs in high positions; jobs that required men to listen to women and follow the orders that women gave to men.

According to Mill, men wanted women to tend to their needs without forcing them. A wife who seemed to be forced to serve their husband ...

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