The Subjection of Women Themes
The main themes in The Subjection of Women by John Stuart Mill include the power of social conditioning and women’s unexplored potential.
- The power of social conditioning: Mill shows how the current norm, in which women are subservient to men, is dependent on institutions that condition women from an early age to accept limited roles.
- Women’s unexplored potential: Mill criticizes those who consider women less capable than men, arguing that with greater opportunities, women will prove themselves to have at least as much potential as men.
Women’s Unexplored Potential
Throughout his essay, Mill asserts that any argument for disqualifying women from certain activities or rights on the basis of their “nature” is invalid because women’s true nature and capabilities are not known. Furthermore, they cannot be known until women are allowed to prove themselves. Mill believes that women may be equally as capable as men in science, language, literature, art, and even government, but as they have been subjugated in all of these areas historically, their capabilities are unknown. Mill cites several historical figures, such as Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria, as examples of women who have proven themselves extremely qualified in occupations traditionally held by men.
Removing laws barring women from certain activities and occupations would allow women to demonstrate their true potential. If women are truly inferior, Mill assures that their lack of success in these areas will naturally exclude them. If they are equally as capable as men, however, society will be improved, because “one-half of the whole sum of human intellect” will be free to contribute to its progress.
Additionally, allowing women access to professions outside the home would, according to Mill, encourage competition. If women are as capable as Mill suspects them to be, they could replace unqualified men in various positions and professions and raise the overall standard of services. In Mill’s mind, excluding women from professions in medicine, law, politics, and other areas
is to injure not them only, but all who employ physicians or advocates, or elect members of parliament, and who are deprived of the stimulating effect of greater competition on the exertions of the competitors, as well as restricted to a narrower range of individual choice.
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