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 ^ffc 3y l<JCC 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, I867). 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, 1910). Citations refer to the page, e.g. (Elliot II, 306). 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, 1882). 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, 1954). PolEc Principles of Political Economy by John Stuart Mill, ed. J. M. Robson, 2 vols, (continuously paged] (Toronto, 196?). 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 life, 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 it;, of sifting opinions, and never accepting any until it has emerged victorious over every logical, still more than over every practical objection." John Stuart Mill on Plato and Sokrates (D&D III, 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 3 of the canon of Mill's writings, and moreover, to show that our understanding of Mill's philosophic Integrity is improved by a knowledge of how he came to write this book. While Mill's reputation derives largely from the essay On Liberty, biographical studies are based upon his Autobiography, the account of his mental development, which is to say, his education; and this account, has often been taken as almost a whole view of the man. His reviewers were frequently politically antagonistic to Mill, and helped to form an image which is based upon a number of misconceptions. The best available biographies suffer from these now traditional disabilities, a number of which will be examined in this study. Mill's ability to analyse issues and to separate personalities from principles did not endear him to ordinary readers, and his critical balance and judgment sometimes offended all parties to the controversies he examined. Political economy and philo• sophy were regarded as cold and rational topiGS, which helped to foster the impression that Mill was a logic machine, a saint of rationalism, and hence an emotionally desiccated human c being.