WMST 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: John Stuart Mill, John Dewey, Feminist Movement

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Women's Studies
• Course: WMST 1000
• Professor: Amy Butchart

Document Summary

Historically men have played an important role supporting women"s liberation. The subjection of women (1869) argues for equality between the sexes. Founded the men"s league for women"s suffrage. When mill wrote the subjection of women (1869), england was fully immersed in victorian values. Women were largely relegated to the domestic sphere. Mill is trying to speak for these women. The book is meant to be a corrective for the treatment of women in victorian society. Mill had very few predecessors when writing the book it was not a popular subject, and he was expressing a minority, if not radical, view. Mill argues that women are essentially the same as men, or at least that is a hypothesis worthy of social testing. What has held women back is their subaltern status under the law, their poor education, and their lack of involvement in the public sphere.